No place for Pliocene tourists with Ockham’s razor in the pocket: Comment on Crespo et al. (2023)

Crespo et al. (2023) have recently described a new genus and species called Europotamogale melkarti, purportedly an afrosoricid ‘tourist genus’ coming from central Africa to Spain during the Pliocene. The occurrence of this mysterious animal has been justified by means of a migration of thousands of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPalaeoworld Vol. 33; no. 6; pp. 1727 - 1734
Main Authors Furió, Marc, Minwer-Barakat, Raef, García-Alix, Antonio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.12.2024
Subjects
Afrosoricida
Eulipotyphla
Iberian Peninsula
Pliocene
Iberian Peninsula
Afrosoricida
Eulipotyphla
Pliocene
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1871-174X
DOI10.1016/j.palwor.2024.02.002

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Summary:Crespo et al. (2023) have recently described a new genus and species called Europotamogale melkarti, purportedly an afrosoricid ‘tourist genus’ coming from central Africa to Spain during the Pliocene. The occurrence of this mysterious animal has been justified by means of a migration of thousands of kilometers leaving no other fossil evidence all along such an incredible journey. According to our analyses, this ‘tourist genus’ is surrounded by many inconsistent facts, which lead us to the conclusion that Europotamogale should not have been erected as a new taxon because its holotype (and only element yet known) belongs to a very different animal. We alternatively propose that this fossil is indeed a fragment of a tooth of a water-mole of the genus Archaeodesmana, which is a much more parsimonious hypothesis.
ISSN:1871-174X
DOI:10.1016/j.palwor.2024.02.002