Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:53:44.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new species of Diplocynodon (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) from the Late Eocene of the Massif Central, France, and the evolution of the genus in the climatic context of the Late Palaeogene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

JEREMY E. MARTIN
JEREMY E. MARTIN*
Affiliation:
CNRS, UMR 5125, PaléoEnvironnements et PaléobioSphère, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, Université de Lyon, F-69622, Lyon, France
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The genus Diplocynodon is widely recorded in Europe from Early Eocene up to Middle Miocene times. A fragmented but almost complete skull of a new species of Diplocynodon is reported from the Late Eocene locality of Domérat, northern border of the Massif Central (Allier), France. The present skull provides an important basis for comparison with other members of the genus and complements a fossil record full of gaps despite the large number of vertebrate localities spanning the Cenozoic. The new taxon occurs at a key period for climate evolution with conditions marking the transition from a greenhouse to an icehouse world. The response of crocodylian assemblages to this climatic shift is discussed in light of evidence for their decline in diversity from the Eocene period onward.

Keywords

CrocodyliaDiplocynodonEoceneOligoceneclimate
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 147 , Issue 4 , July 2010 , pp. 596 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Present address: Laboratoire de géologie, Université de Corse, 20250 Corté, France

References

Antunes, M. T. 1994. On Western Europe Miocene gavials (Crocodylia): their paleogeography, migrations and climatic significance. Comunicações do Instituto Geologico e Mineiro 80, 57–69.Google Scholar
Astibia, H., Aranburu, A., Pereda Suberbiola, X., Murelaga, X., Sesé, C., Cuesta, M. A., Moya-Sola, S., Baceta, J. I., Badiola, A. & Köhler, M. 2000. Un nouveau site à vertébrés continentaux de l'Éocène supérieur de Zambrana (Bassin de Miranda-Treviño, Alava, Pays Basque). Géobios 32, 233–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, D. E. 1965. Krokodile als Klimazeugen. Geologische Rundschau 54, 328–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, D. E. 1966. Die Krokodile, insbesondere Asiatosuchus und aff. Sebecus?, aus dem Eozän von Messel bei Darmstadt/Hessen. Abhandlungen des Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung 52, 1–105.Google Scholar
BiochroM'97. 1997. Synthèses et tableaux de corrélations. In Actes du Congrès BiochroM'97 (eds Aguilar, J.-P., Legendre, S. & Michaux, J.), pp. 769–805. Mémoires et Travaux de l'E. P. H. E. Inst. Montpellier.Google Scholar
Böhme, M. 2003. The Miocene climatic optimum: evidence from ectothermic vertebrates of Central Europe. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 195, 389–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bravard, A. 1843. Considérations sur la distribution des mammifères terrestres fossiles dans le département du Puy-de-Dôme. Annales scientifiques, littéraires et industrielles de l'Auvergne 16, 1–439.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, W. & Rauhe, M. 1998. Diplocynodon ratelii Pomel, 1847 (Crocodylia, Leidyosuchidae) aus dem Unter-Oligozän von Céreste (Südfrankreich). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 209, 295–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brochu, C. A. 1997. A review of “Leidyosuchus” (Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia) from the Cretaceous through Eocene of North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 679–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brochu, C. A. 1999. Phylogeny, systematics, and historical biogeography of Alligatoroidea. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 6, 9–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brochu, C. A. 2004. Alligatorine phylogeny and the status of Allognathosuchus Mook, 1921. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24, 857–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buffetaut, E. 1982. Les crocodiliens Européens et la coupure Eocene–Oligocene. 9ème réunion annuelle des sciences de la terre, Paris. Société Géologique de France.Google Scholar
Buscalioni, A. D., Sanz, J. L. & Lourdes, M. C. 1992. A new species of the eusuchian crocodile Diplocynodon from the Eocene of Spain. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie 187, 1–29.Google Scholar
Coxall, H. K., Wilson, P. A., Palike, H., Lear, C. H. & Backman, J. 2005. Rapid stepwise onset of Antarctic glaciation and deeper calcite compensation in the Pacific Ocean. Nature 433, 53–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Del Favero, L. 1999. Un esemplare di Diplocynodon Pomel, 1847 (Crocodylia, Leidyosuchidae) conservato nel museo geopaleontologico dell' Università di Padova. Lavori Società Veneta di Scienze Naturali 24, 107–17.Google Scholar
Delfino, M. & Smith, T. 2009. A reassessment of the morphology and taxonomic status of ‘Crocodylus’ depressifrons Blainville, 1855 (Crocodylia, Crocodyloidea) based on the Early Eocene remains from Belgium. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 156, 140–67.Google Scholar
Efimov, M. B. 1988. The fossil crocodiles and champsosaurides of Mongolia and USSR. Transactions, the joint Soviet–Mongolian paleontological expedition 36, 1–108.Google Scholar
Eldrett, J. S., Harding, I. C., Wilson, P. A., Butler, E. & Roberts, A. P. 2007. Continental ice in Greenland during the Eocene and Oligocene. Nature 446, 176–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Escarguel, G., Marandat, B. & Legendre, S. 1997. Sur l'âge numérique des faunes de mammifères du paléogène d'Europe occidentale, en particulier celles de l'éocène inférieur et moyen. In Actes du Congrès BiochroM'97 (eds Aguilar, J.-P., Legendre, S. & Michaux, J.), pp. 769–805. Mémoires et Travaux de l'E. P. H. E. Inst. Montpellier.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, L. & Bulot, C. 1997. Les Diplocynodon (Reptilia, Crocodylia) de l'Orléanien (Miocène inférieur à moyen) de France. Geodiversitas 19, 107–28.Google Scholar
Gmelin, J. F. 1789. Linnei Systema Naturae. Leipzig: G. E. Beer.Google Scholar
Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G. & Smith, A. G. 2005. A geologic time scale 2004. Cambridge: University Press Cambridge, 589 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gramann, F. 1958. Der Crocodilide Diplocynodon hantoniensis (Wodd) aus dem unteroligozänen Melanienton Niederhessens. Notizblatt Hessischen Landesamtes Bodenforschung 86, 77–8.Google Scholar
Grandstaff, B. S., Parris, D. C., Denton, R. K. & Gallagher, W. B. 1992. Alphadon (Marsupialia) and Multituberculata (Allotheria) in the Cretaceous of eastern North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 12, 217–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. E. 1844. Catalogue of tortoises, crocodilians, and amphisbaenians in the collection of the British Museum. British Museum (Natural History), London, 80 pp.Google Scholar
Guanbang, L. & Guikun, C. 1993. Late Cenozoic Crocodilia fossils from Jiangsu. Vertebrata Palasiatica 31, 61–4.Google Scholar
Hooker, J. J., Collinson, M. E. & Sille, N. P. 2004. Eocene–Oligocene mammalian faunal turnover in the Hampshire Basin, UK: calibration to the global time scale and the major cooling event. Journal of the Geological Society, London 161, 161–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooker, J. J., Cook, E. & Benton, M. J. 2005. British Tertiary fossil mammal GCR sites. In Mesozoic and Tertiary Fossil Mammals and Birds of Great Britain (eds Benton, M. J., Cook, E. & Hooker, J. J.), pp. 67–124. Geological Conservation Review Series no. 32, JNCC, PeterboroughGoogle Scholar
Hua, S. 2004. Les crocodiliens du Sparnacien (Eocène inférieur) du Quesnoy (Oise, France). Oryctos 5, 57–62.Google Scholar
Hutchison, J. H. 1982. Turtle, crocodilian, and champsosaur diversity changes in the Cenozoic of the North-Central region of Western United States. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 37, 149–64.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. H. 1875. On Stagonolepis Robertsoni, and on the evolution of the Crocodilia. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 3, 423–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iordansky, N. N. 1973. The skull of the Crocodylia. In Biology of the Reptilia, Vol. 1, Morphology (eds Gans, C. & Parson, T. S.), pp. 201–62. London and New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ivany, L. C., Van Simaeys, S., Domack, E. W. & Samson, S. D. 2006. Evidence for an earliest Oligocene ice sheet on the Antartctic Peninsula. Geology 34, 377–80.Google Scholar
Kotsakis, T., Delfino, M. & Piras, P. 2004. Italian Cenozoic crocodilians: taxa, timing and palaeobiogeographic implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 210, 67–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, J. W. 1979. Thermophilic response of the American Alligator and the American Crocodile to feeding. Copeia 1, 48–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lear, C. H., Elderfield, H. & Wilson, P. A. 2000. Cenozoic deep-sea temperatures and global ice volumes from Mg/Ca benthic foraminiferal calcite. Science 287, 269–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Legendre, S. 1989. Les communautés de mammifères du Paléogène (Eocène supérieur et Oligocène) d'Europe occidentale: structures, milieux et évolution. Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen A 16, 1–110.Google Scholar
Markwick, P. J. 1998 a. Crocodilian diversity in space and time: the role of climate in paleoecology and its implication for understanding K/T extinctions. Paleobiology 24, 470–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markwick, P. J. 1998 b. Fossil crocodilians as indicators of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic climates: implications for using palaeontological data in reconstructing palaeoclimate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 137, 205–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. E. & Benton, M. J. 2008. Crown clades in vertebrate nomenclature: correcting the definition of Crocodylia. Systematic Biology 57, 173–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martín de Jesús, S., Jimenez Fuentes, E., Fincias, B., Del Prado, J. M. & Mulas Alonso, E. 1987. Los Crocodylia del Eoceno y Oligoceno de la Cuenca del Duero. Dientes y osteodermos. Revista Española de Paleontología 2, 95–108.Google Scholar
Martini, E. & Reichenbacher, B. 2007. Nannoplankton und fisch-otolithen in den Mittleren Pechelbronn-Schichten (Unter-Oligozän, Oberrheingraben/Mainzer Becken). Geologische Abhandlungen Hessen 116, 235–73.Google Scholar
Meloux, J. L., Remy, J. A., Sudre, J., Turland, M. & Vianey-Liaud, M. 1996. Découverte d'une faune à Palaeotherium et Anoplotherium dans le basin tertiaire de Domérat (Allier). Géologie de la France 2, 69–78.Google Scholar
Miller, K. G., Wright, J. D. & Fairbanks, R. G. 1991. Unlocking the ice house: Oligocene-Miocene oxygen isotopes, eustasy, and margin erosion. Journal of Geophysical Research 96, 6829–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mook, C. C. 1960. Diplocynodon remains from the Bridger Beds of Wyoming. American Museum Novitates 2007, 1–4.Google Scholar
Moran, K., Backman, J., Brinkhuis, H., Clemens, S. C., Cronin, T., Dickens, G. R., Eynaud, F., Gattacceca, J., Jakobsson, M., Jordan, R. W., Kaminski, M., King, J., Koc, N., Krylov, A., Martinez, N., Matthiessen, J., McInroy, D., Moore, T. C., Onodera, J., O'Regan, M., Pälike, H., Rea, B., Rio, D., Sakamoto, T., Smith, D. C., Stein, R., St John, K., Suto, I., Suzuki, N., Takahashi, K., Watanabe, M., Yamamoto, M., Farrell, J., Frank, M., Kubik, P., Jokat, W. & Kristoffersen, Y. 2006. The Cenozoic palaeoenvironment of the Arctic Ocean. Nature 441, 601–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mosbrugger, V., Utescher, T. & Dilcher, D. L. 2005. Cenozoic continental climatic evolution of Central Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 102, 14964–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parris, D. C., Grandstaff, B. S., Denton, R. K. & Dobie, J. L. 1997. Diplocynodon (Alligatorinae) in the Cretaceous of eastern North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 69A.Google Scholar
Piras, P. & Buscalioni, A. D. 2006. Diplocynodon muelleri comb. nov., an Oligocene diplocynodontine alligatoroid from Catalonia (Ebro Basin, Lleida province, Spain). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26, 608–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomel, A. 1847. Note sur les animaux fossiles découverts dans le département de l'Allier. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 4, 378–85.Google Scholar
Rage, J.-C. 2006. The lower vertebrates from the Eocene and Oligocene of the Phosphorites du Quercy (France): an overview. Strata série 1 13, 161–73.Google Scholar
Salisbury, S. W., Molnar, R. E., Frey, E. & Willis, P. M. A. 2006. The origin of modern crocodyliforms: new evidence from the Cretaceous of Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 273, 2439–48.Google Scholar
Schouten, S., Eldrett, J., Greenwood, D. R., Harding, I. & Sinninghe Damsté, M. B. J. S. 2008. Onset of long-term cooling of Greenland near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary as revealed by branched tetraether lipids. Geology 36, 147–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seymour, R. S., Bennet-Stamper, C. L., Johnston, S. D., Carrier, D. R. & Gordon, G. C. 2004. Evidence for endothermic ancestors of crocodiles at the stem of archosaur evolution. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77, 1051–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stehlin, H. G. 1910. Remarques sur les faunules de Mammifères des couches éocènes et oligocènes du Bassin de Paris. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 4, 488–520.Google Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 2002. PAUP*: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and other methods) (Ver 4.0b10) (Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA).Google Scholar
Thiry, M., Schmitt, J. M., Trauth, N., Cojean, R. & Turland, M. 1983. Formations rouges ‘sidérolithiques’ et silicifications sur la bordure Nord du Massif Central. Revue Géologique de Dynamique Géographique et Physique 24, 381–95.Google Scholar
Tripatti, A. K., Eagle, R. A., Morton, A., Dowdeswell, J. A., Atkinson, K. L., Bahé, Y., Dawber, C. F., Khadun, E., Shaw, R. M. H., Shorttle, O. & Thanabalasundaram, L. 2008. Evidence for glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere back to 44 Ma from ice-rafted debris in the Greenland Sea. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 265, 112–22.Google Scholar
Vaillant, L. 1872. Étude zoologique sur les crocodiliens fossiles de Saint-Gérand Le Puy. Annales de la Société Géologique de France 3, 1–58.Google Scholar
Vasse, D. 1992. Un crâne d'Asiatosuchus germanicus du Lutétien d'Issel (Aude). Bilan sur le genre Asiatosuchus en Europe. Geobios 25, 293–304.Google Scholar
Vignaud, P., Brunet, M., Guevel, B. & Jehenne, Y. 1996. Un crâne de Diplocynodon (Crocodylomorpha, Alligatoridae) de l'Oligocène inférieur de Dordogne (France). Comptes rendus de l'académie des sciences, Paris, série II 322, 595–601.Google Scholar
Zachos, J. C., Shackleton, N. J., Revenaugh, J. S., Palike, H. & Flower, B. P. 2001. Climate response to orbital forcing across the Oligocene–Miocene boundary. Science 292, 274–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed