First levantine fossil murines shed new light on the earliest intercontinental dispersal of mice

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 11874 - 16
• Main Authors: López-Antoñanzas, Raquel, Renaud, Sabrina, Peláez-Campomanes, Pablo, Azar, Dany, Kachacha, George, Knoll, Fabien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 29.08.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/181/414; 704/2151/414; Africa; Animal Migration - physiology; Animals; Biological Evolution; Diet - history; Dispersal; Earth Sciences; Environment; Europe; Extinction, Biological; Fossils - anatomy & histology; Fossils - history; History, Ancient; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insectivores; Lebanon; Mice; Miocene; Molar - anatomy & histology; Molar - physiology; multidisciplinary; Muridae - anatomy & histology; Muridae - classification; Muridae - physiology; Neogene; New species; Paleontology; Phylogeny; Phylogeography; Physical characteristics; Rodents; Scanning electron microscopy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sciences of the Universe; Teeth; Lebanon; Europe; Africa

Recent extensive field prospecting conducted in the Upper Miocene of Lebanon resulted in the discovery of several new fossiliferous localities. One of these, situated in the Zahleh area (Bekaa Valley, central Lebanon) has yielded a particularly diverse vertebrate fauna. Micromammals constitute an im...