Le présent volume traite des lagomorphes, carnivores, artiodactyles, périssodactyles et proboscidiens de la faune de Montredon (Hérault). Il clôt la monographie de ce célèbre gisement d'âge miocène supérieur du Languedoc, dont la première partie, relative aux rongeurs, insectivores et chiroptères, fut publiée en 1982.
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L’article analyse les poches à phosphorite d’Aubrelong (Quercy), comparant les fouilles de 1937 (Éocène supérieur) et celles des années 1967-1970 (Oligocène inférieur), révélant une stratification contrastée : argiles brunes pauvres en fossiles en surface, et argiles rouges riches en phosphates et faune en profondeur. Les analyses géochimiques confirment une origine latéritique sous climat tropical humide, avec des remplissages tantôt stratifiés, tantôt chaotiques, remettant en cause l’hypothèse d’une progression chronologique uniforme des dépôts 

Tarsals that can be confidently attributed to Paschatheríum dolloi from Dormaal (Belgium) are described. The astragalus is short; its broad neck is set at an angle of 30 degrees to the trochlea. The trochlea is pulley-shaped and proximally extended. There is no astragalar foramen. The medial tibial facet extends distally in a cup deeply excavated in the neck and buttressed. The sustentacular facet extends toward the navicular facet but is not fully confluent with it. The calcaneum bears a proximo-distally extended proximal facet for the astragalus. A relatively large peroneal tubercle projects from the body, and is situated distally. Functionally, the trochlea indicates extensive flexion-extension movements of the foot. Calcaneo-astragalar facets indicate sliding and rotation between the two tarsals. The inclination of the navicular facet suggests frequent foot inversion. The peroneal tubercle reflects good muscular capacities for foot rotation. Overall morphology is interpreted as a scansorial adaptation similar to that of sciurids.Comparisons are made with the tarsals of Macrocranion vandebroeki from Dormaal and Hyopsodus paulus from the Bridgerian of Wyoming. Some similarities between the astragali of Paschatherium and Macrocraníon (trochlea) are interpreted as convergences for rapid locomotion. However absence of mobility at the lower ankle and midtarsal joints in M. vandebroekzi suggests that this species was cursorial, as is known for M. tenerum from Messel. Similarities in the calcanea of Paschatherium and Hyopsodus are probably the result of close phylogenetic relations, and confirm the placement of Paschatherium in the hyopsodontids. The differences in the calcanea of Paschatherium and Macrocranion underline that Paschatherium is distinct from erinaceomorph insectivores. The differences in astragalar morphology between Paschatherium and Hyopsodus show that a marked adaptive divergence separates the two genera. We speculate about the common occurrence of a deep tibial cup (“cotylar fossa”) and a pulley-shaped trochlea in Paschatherium and hyracoids, suggesting that an adaptive scenario similar to that having led to Paschatherium (scansoriality) might explain the acquisition of the peculiar hyracoid tarsal characters; such a scenario contradicts the concept of Pantomesaxonia. Other peculiar characters of Hyopsodus suggest that hyopsodontids might be given more consideration in the search for hyracoid (and tethythere) origins. 

The utilization of screen-washing and attack by dilute acetic acid has permitted the collecting, in the Miocene of the department of Hérault (France), of a very rich ichthyofauna. This fauna is presently comprised of about 60 studied species, of which 11 are new, and represents, in the present state of knowledge, the most varied Miocene selachian fauna described in the world.
The abondance of material has allowed an overall revision to be made; it has thus been possible to complete the description and the figuration of species that were poorly known until now, and to synonymize species that were established on simple morphotypes. Paleo-ecologic study of the ichthyofauna has permitted conclusions to be drawn relative to climate and bathymetry; it was thus possible to show that the Miocene fauna of Hérault was a fauna of a subtropical sea, essentially neritic with rare pelagic contributions.
Knowing the stratigraphic position of the localities, it has been possible to distinguish three faunal assemblages based on associations of species. Some hypotheses on the evolution of certain lineages have been expressed.
The comparison of this fauna with that of other regions permitted the relationships of two diflerent faunal provinces to be specified: the first belongs to the northern domain, characterized by a fauna still subtropical but with numerous temperate water elements; the leoond belongs to the Mesogean domain characterized by warm water forms. It has also lhovm that contemporary faunas could be very different according to the bathymetric zone in which they lived, which furnishes valuable information for the paleogeographic reconstruction of sedimentary basins.
  

Le Mémoire Extraordinaire 1988 de PALAEOVERTEBRATA regroupe dix articles consacrés au gisement à mammifères du Miocène supérieur de Montredon (Hérault), connu et classique depuis la fin du siècle dernier, et auquel est lié le nom du savant paléontologue lyonnais Charles Depéret.
Cette monographie vient normalement à la suite de celle parue en 1982 dans PALAEOVERTEBRATA, dont les différents articles traitaient de la stratigraphie du gisement, et faisaient l'étude des différents groupes de micromammifères représentés dans la faune (insectivores, chiroptères, rongeurs). 

Fossils of the endangered sturgeons and peddlefishes are widely distributed. We here report for the first time the presence of one of the extinct osteichthyes genus Cylindracanthus (Liedy 1856a) from the Early Eocene lignite-bearing successions of the Kutch Basin, India. The present well preserved rostrum is characterised by numerous wedge-shaped components encircling the central canal that runs along its length, paired at the base and each wedge contributing to the formation of a ridge. The rostrum lacks teeth. The present find extends the palaeobiogeographical distribution of Cylindracanthus considerably and supports its Eocene age as dental remnants preserved in Cylindracanthus sp. shows a decrease in remanent dentition and tooth bases from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. Cylindracanthus is an useful palaeoenvironmental indicator as it has been found associated typically with deposits of nearshore marine environments. 

This paper is about the oldest African rodents faunas, from the late Early Eocene, or early Middle Eocene, Glib Zegdou (Algeria) and Chambi (Tunisia) localities. Five species are described and figured, belonging to a new family here created, the Zegdoumyidae.

This family is compared to the Early and Middle Eocene rodents families from Asia, Europe and North America (Chapattimyidae, Yuomyidae, Gliridae, Theridomyidae, lschyromyidae and Sciuravidae), as well as to those known from the Late Eocene African locality Bir El Ater (Anomaluridae and Phiomyidae).

On the one hand, it seems clear that the African endemic Anomaluridae arise from the Zegdoumyidae. On the other hand, the lschyromyidae, or primitive Sciuravidae, may be the most reliable ancestral groups for the Zegdoumyidae. Thus, this new family can be considered as the sister group for the American Sciuravidae on the one hand, and for the European Gliridae on the other hand.

The biogeographical consequences of these phylogenetic hypotheses are discussed. A new phase of communication between Europe and North Africa is inferred, during the Early Eocene. It has been followed by a short period of endemism, allowing the adaptive radiation for the Zegdoumyidae, preceding the immigration of the Phiomyidae, during the Late Eocene, probably from Asian relatives. 

The presence at Silveirinha of one of the earliest, ? Late Paleocene or Lowermost Eocene, european representatives of the genus Diplocynodon is based mostly on isolated bones and teeth (often from juveniles). This small-sized form is the only crocodilian so far recognized in this site. The longevity of Diplocynodon in Portugal becomes much extended; the genus survived there until the Middle Miocene at least. A discussion on the possible affinities with other eocene Díplocynodon and especially those from Cubillos-Valdegallina (Zamora, Spain) is presented. On the other hand, differences have been detected in comparison with: Díplocynodon tormis, from the middle Eocene of the Douro basin in Spain, which may belong to another phyletic line; and the aff. Diplocynodon from Dormaal (Belgium) and Le Quesnoy (France), nearly contemporaneous of Silveirinha. The Silveirinha Diplocynodon and many other data strongly suggest moist, subtropical, quite limited in space environments related to an alluvial plain crossed by small, meandering channels. 

New faunal and stratigraphical data on the vertebrates localities from the early Paleogene of the Ouarzazate Basin (Adrar Mgorn 1, Adrar Mgorn 1 bis et N'Tagourt 2), Morocco, are presented. A magnetostratigraphical study, the first for such early Paleogene Arabo-African mammal localities, and the discovery of probable remains of the nannofossil Discoaster support the Thanetian age of the Adrar Mgorn 1 site. The magnetostratigraphy suggests a slightly later age than was thought for the Paleogene formations of the local series of Tinerhir and for the vertebrate localities: late or latest Thanetian for Adrar Mgorn 1 and Adrar Mgorn 1 bis, middle Ypresian for N'Tagourt 2. It also indicates a lower position of the KT boundary in the series. Two tons of matrix recovered in the vertebrate sites have vielded new data on the micromammals. A damaged lower molar from N'Tagourt 2 is referable to Khamsaconus bulbosus  and supports the proboscidean affinities of this species and especially possible relationships with bunolophodont taxa such as elephantiforms. A lower molar from Adrar Mgorn 1 bis belongs to a new form which can be identified as a plesiadapiform or an euprimate close to Altiatlasius koulchii though significantly larger. A new material from Adrar Mgorn 1 illustrates a new dilambdodont adapisoriculid species which is referable to Garatherium : ?Garatherium todrae n. sp. Another species referred to Garatherium is known in the locality (?Garatherium n. sp.). Garatherium is a new lineage from the Ouarzazate basin which crosses the Paleocene-Eocene boundary together with Palaeoryctes, Didelphodontinae gen. and sp. 2, Todralestes, and Afrodon, and it is the first Paleocene-Eocene lineage identified outside of this basin (Garatheríum is based on a species from El Kohol, Algeria). Among the Paleocene-Eocene lineages from the Ouarzazate basin, it should be also mentioned a new possible carnassial form (carnivoran or creodont; Adrar Mgorn 1), and an upper molar of Cimolestes cf. incisus (Adrar Mgorn 1 bis). The upper molar THR 168 previously reported as from an indeterminate didelphodontine is here identified as the M1/ of Afrodon chleuhi. The micromammal faunas from the Ouarzazate basin are positioned in the global chronological framework of the mammal localities from the Paleogene of the Arabo-African domain. 

Cranial anatomy of a late Miocene rhizomyid, Brafhyrhizomys cf. B. pilgrimi, provides new evidence on the origin of the dorsal, round infraorbital foramen of living rhizomyines. Primitive rhizomyids retain a myomorphous keyhole foramen with a long ventral slit that retracts upward during the evolutionary history of the Rhizomyidae. The primitive condition of the elongated ventral slit is represented by Kanisamys sivalensis. Among later burrowers the foramen shows progressive dorsal migration, the ventral slit terminating midway up the snout in B.tertracharax and B. choristos ; well above the midline of the snout in Brachyrhizamys cf. B. pilgrimi. Apparently this transformation began earlier among Rhizomyinae than among Tachyoryctinae and continued to a more derived stage in rhizomyines. ln living Rhizomyx the ventral slit is absent and only a high round hole remains at the anterior end of the zygomatic arch. 

The subfamilies Murinae and "Dendromurinae" both include 4 species at Chorora. Among the former, while Preacomys nov. gen. seems to be a forerunner of Acomys, the affinities of the remaining, poorly known taxa, are more difficult to evaluate. The bulk of the fauna, remarkably, consists of Dendromurines. Their similarities with those of Ngorora tends to pull the site back in time, but the large size and diversity of Murines fit better an age more recent than the very beginning of the Late Miocene.

  

Stratigraphic studies in the Aktau Mountains bordering the Dzhungarian Alatau Range in southeastern Kazakhstan have included mapping of Tertiary lithostratigraphic units, documentation of fossiliferous deposits, correlation of sections, etc. These investigations have led in turn to revised interpretation of the Tertiary geology of the area. The Tertiary sequence in the Aktau Mountains is represented by three lithostratigraphic units (in ascending order): (1) the middle Eocene Akbulak Formation; (2) the Oligocene Aktau Formation with a lower member including white quartz sands that contain fossil mammals, and an upper member including red-colored clays and sandstones, brick red clays, an anhydrite and gypsum clayey horizon, and bright brown-red clays; and (3) the upper Oligocene-Miocene Chul'adyr Formation with a lower member of greenish and yellowish conglomerates and gritstones, a middle member including grayish and yellowish sands and gritstones, and an upper member including brown and red clays and carbonate- and anhydrite-rich clays. The Aktau and Chul”adyr Formations represent separate cycles of sedimentation. Mammalian biostratigraphy and biochronology of the three vertebrate faunas in Aktau Mountains are reviewed. The mammalian fauna from white sands of the lower Aktau Formation is small but includes Ardynia and is thought to be early Oligocene in age. The mammalian fauna from conglomerates and gritstones of the lower member of the Chul”adyr Formation is also small but includes Paraceratherium and is thought to be late Oligocene in age. The mammalian fauna from sands of the middle member of the Chul'adyr Formation is extensive, with micro- and macrofauna attributed to Neogene mammal zones MN4 to MN 6, indicating a latest early Miocene to earliest middle Miocene age (Orleanian-Astaracian). Most genera of middle Chul”adyr mammals are known from the middle Miocene Shanwang faunas of China and from the Castelnau-d”Arbieu faunal assemblage (MN4-MN6) of southwestern France. 

The Zanclian marls from Papiol provided otoliths belonging to 53 teleost taxa; nine of those are new for the Mediterranean Pliocene. The association reflects a bathymetry between 150 and 350 m, but it is likely that such depths only existed at the initial stage of flooding of the Llobregat bay. A compilation of the available data for the whole Mediterranean realm at Zanclian time provided a list of 163 taxa, of which 105 could be identified at species level. This last group provides the most useful data for evaluating the composition and affinities of the Mediterranean Zanclian fauna, which appears to be significantly different from the Recent Mediterranean fauna. The Zanclian fauna counts 68 % of Recent species: 12,5 % were already represented in the Mediterranean Miocene, 37 % appeared there at the Zanclian, and 18 % are extra-Mediterranean today. This last group is essentially composed by oceanic fishes, living in the warm parts of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. It is evident that a non neglectable number of Recent species only penetrated very recently in the Mediterranean, which stresses the differences between the more oceanic Zanclian Mediterranean fauna and the present one.


  

A rear skull from the Quercy Phosphorites is described. It documents a new perissodactyl genus, likely assignable to the family Palaeotheriidae and probably paleogene of age. Owing to the lack of any tooth, this family assignment remains however somewhat hypothetical. The specimen is firstly characterised by the presence of a wide epitympanic sinus swelling and hollowing the squamosal shell and the post-glenoid process. This cavity might make up a peculiar pattern of improvement for the hearing apparatus by carrying out a kind of drum near the middle ear, whereas the bony tympanic remains barely bulged and forms but a few developed auditory bulla. This pattern appears an outcome of a trend observed with many palaeotheriids, such as Plagiolophus. Furthermore, the endocranial cast shows a rather high degree of gyrencephaly for a paleogene mammal. The prominent lambdoidal crest points out a powerful nape musculature and a lowered head bearing. Consequently, it is assumed that such an animal was probably living in somewhat open places, at the expense of rather tough vegetables. It might have been accordingly provided with a semi-hypsodont, cement covered, "plagiolophoid" dentition. 

On the Track of Ice Age Mammals justifie pleinement son titre car l'auteur, Anthony J. Sutcliffe, apporte au lecteur faits et interprétations qui l'amèneront à s'intéresser encore plus au passé récent et à l'avenir de son environnement et à la question de l'impact de l'homme sur la nature. Après les chapitres qui présentent les temps glaciaires et les divers témoignages qui nous en sont parvenus, les cinquième et sixième apportent les informations nécessaires à la compréhension des résultats que nous donnent les chercheurs: principes, moyens d'étude et limites des méthodes, difficultés de l'intégration des données dans un cadre stratigraphique, variabilité des signaux climatiques, variabilité de leur intensité selon l'endroit par rapport au centre de la glaciation, complications liées à la qualité inégale de l'enregistrement géologique, en mer et sur le continent. 

Revision of the hipparion material from Montredon, including newly excavated and other unpublished specimens brings evidence of specific heterogeneity.
A fragmentary very small MC III seems very close to H. macedonicum from the upper Vallesian of Ravin de la Pluie, Greece. In that same site was also found a large hipparion.
Most of the Montredon material is referred to H. depereti. This species associates characters usually found in Vallesian hipparions (highly plicated upper cheek teeth, deep vestíbular grooves on the lower cheek teeth, robust metapodials) with characters more frequent in Turolian forms (middle size, lack of confluence in the upper premolar fossettes, lack of ectostylids on the adult lower cheek teeth, well developped keel on the MC III, facette for the 2nd cuneiform present on all MT III). H. depereti shares some of these characters with the Spanish and Portuguese hipparions transítional between the Vallesian and the Turolian (Masia del Barbo, Azambujeira) but is not identícal to any of them. The upper Vallesian hipparion material from Diavata, Greece, probably belongs to H. depereti but not the large hipparion rests from Ravin de la Pluie.
Thus, Montredon and Ravin de la Pluie may well share the same small species, H. macedonicum, but they differ in the associated one: middle-sized H. depereti at Montredon, large-sized H. primigenium at Ravin de la Pluie. Both sites, however, give evidence of small hipparions during the Vallesian, coexisting with other larger species.
The present paper also proposes an adaptation of the Kiesewalter's indices that calculates the height at the withers using the metapodial length, and discusses indices proposed by Gromova and by Sen et al. to express the relative development of the metapodial keel. 

An ilium from the Upper Eocene (MP l7a) of Hordle, England, represents the first report of Rana from the Eocene of Britain. The ilium is similar to those of the water frog (Rana [ridibunda]) species group. 

An assemblage of micromammals is reported from California Wash, a fossil bearing continental deposit in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona, late Blancan in age. Cricetid and Arvicolid rodents are richly represented, including four and two species, respectively. This study mainly focuses on Sígmodon, the most abundant form. The sample of Sigmodon is compared to samples of the same genus from other localities of the San Pedro Valley of comparable age, and some inferences on the taxonomy of the genus are attempted. The specimens are referred to Sigmodon minor and Sigmodon cf. S. curtisi. Other cricetids (Onychomys pedroensis and Baiomys brachygnathus) and arvicolids (Mictomys vetus and Ondatra ídahoensis) are also recognized and described. 

Comparison of various measurements of taxonomic evolution using stratigraphic range data for orders, families and genera of land mammals indicates several means by which deficiencies of the South American fossil record (e.g., presence of hiatuses, unequal temporal and geographic representation of ages, unequal systematic treatment) may be normalized, thus permitting a less distorted appreciation of diversity pattern and trend. Initial radiation of native taxa resulted in a relative equilibrium by early Eocene time. Subsequent increases in absolute diversity were apparently induced by immigration at the family level and by environmental factors at the generic level. Miocene through Pleistocene phases of faunal stability, herein characterized as chronofaunas, are punctuated by rapid turnover events resulting from a complex of factors, including adaptive radiation of immigrant taxa into unoccupied eco-space; environmental and concomitant habitat change induced by orogenic events of the Andes; and biotic interactions between native and immigrant taxa, including competition and prey naivete. The first two factors account for major faunal transitions in the South American middle and late Tertiary; immigration-induced turnover may have been of greater importance in shaping the character of the fauna upon the Great American Interchange and the arrival of man in the Neotropics 

The revision of the Rhombodontidae from the Maastrichtian of Morocco led us to the description of a new species: Rhombodus andriesi.

The biometrical study of populations of R. binkhorsti and R. microdon, species sometimes considered as synonymous, supports the conclusion that they represent two distinct species and not young and adult specimens of a single species. The stratigraphical range of these two species confirms this
result.

The reexarnination of type-series studied by C. Ararnbourg led us to revise the generic status of Rhombodus bondoni which is now ranged, because his dental features, in the new genus Dasyrhombodus showing a less derived dentition than Rhombodus. The stratigraphical range of each species is clarified within the phosphatic series.