Université de Fribourg

Dental anomaly in a middle Miocene fossil of the genus Spermophilinus (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from southern Germany

Prieto, Jérôme ; Rummel, Michael ; Peláez-Campomanes, Pablo ; Vasilyan, Davit

In: Fossil Imprint, 2020, vol. 76, no. 1, p. 174-180

The maxillary presented in this work has been excavated in the middle Miocene karst filling Petersbuch 136 (Germany, Bavaria) and shows the oldest evidence of dental anomaly in a sciurid. The aberrant morphology, probably hyperdontia or no replacement of roots of deciduous teeth, affects the area of the P3, a tooth that is generally not well documented in the Spermophilinus record.

Université de Fribourg

Fish, amphibian and reptilian assemblage from the middle Miocene locality Gračanica—Bugojno palaeolake, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Vasilyan, Davit

In: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 2020, vol. 100, no. 2, p. 437–455

This paper presents the first fossil fish, amphibian and reptilian fauna from Bosnia and Herzegovina Dinarides. The fauna of ectothermic vertebrates of the Bugojno palaeolake, dated to 15.2–14.0 Ma, composes of killifishes (Cyprinodontiformes indet.), a barb (Barbini indet. (aff. Barbus), a crocodile newt (Chelotriton sp.), a painted frog (Latonia sp.) and a crocodile (Alligatoroidea indet....

Université de Fribourg

Anchitheriinae (Perissodactyla, Equidae) from the early middle Miocene locality Gračanica (Bugojno Basin, Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Becker, Damien ; Tissier, Jérémy ; Vasilyan, Davit ; Göhlich, Ursula B.

In: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 2020, p. -

The early middle Miocene (European Land Mammal Zone MN5-earliest MN6) locality Gračanica (Bugojno Basin, Bosnia-Herzegovina) has yielded numerous well-preserved dental remains of two Anchitheriinae species: Anchitherium hippoides and Anchitherium ezquerrae. This anchithere assemblage is typical of the Orleanian European Land Mammal Age and is recorded for the first time in Southeastern...

Université de Fribourg

First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia

Mörs, Thomas ; Reguero, Marcelo ; Vasilyan, Davit

In: Scientific Reports, 2020, vol. 10, p. 5051

Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone that can be attributed to the Recent, South American, anuran family Calyptocephalellidae or helmeted frogs, representing the first modern amphibian found in Antarctica. The two bone...

Université de Fribourg

The fossil record of the genus Varanus from the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia)

Vasilyan, Davit ; Bukhsianidze, Maia

In: PeerJ, 2020, p. e8322

The Southern Caucasus, with its special geographic position and complex topography, is a well-known biodiversity hotspot. However, the formation of this hotspot remains largely unstudied. To reveal this, a thorough study of the fossil record of the region is necessary. In the present paper, we describe for the first time fossil monitor lizards (Varanus sp.) from two late Miocene localities from...

Université de Fribourg

The last Palaeoproteus (Urodela: Batrachosauroididae) of Europe

Vasilyan, Davit ; Yanenko, Vadym

In: Scientific Reports, 2020, vol. 10, p. 2733

The Batrachosauroididae are an enigmatic group of salamanders known from the Cretaceous and Tertiary of North America and Europe. In Europe, the family is known only by two species of the genus Palaeoproteus. The genus has limited distribution in Western and Central Europe. In the present paper, we describe a new species, Palaeoproteus miocenicus, from the early late Miocene (11–9 Ma) of...

Université de Fribourg

Fish, amphibian and reptilian faunas from latest Oligocene to middle Miocene localities from Central Turkey

Vasilyan, Davit ; Roček, Zbyněk ; Ayvazyan, Anna ; Claessens, Leon

In: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 2019, vol. 99, no. 4, p. 723–757

In this paper, we describe ectothermic vertebrate assemblages from the Kargı 1, Kargı 2, Kargı 3, Harami1, Harami 3, Hancılı, Keseköy, Çandır and Bağiçi localities in Turkey. The ages of these localities range from the latest Oligocene to the middle Miocene. The preserved non-mammalian fauna of the studied localities includes fishes (Luciobarbus sp., Barbus sp., Luciobarbus vel...

Université de Fribourg

Fossil amphibians and reptiles from the Neogene locality of Maramena (Greece), the most diverse European herpetofauna at the Miocene/Pliocene transition boundary

Georgalis, Georgios L. ; Villa, Andrea ; Ivanov, Martin ; Vasilyan, Davit ; Delfino, Massimo

In: Palaeontologia Electronica, 2019, p. -

We herein describe the fossil amphibians and reptiles from the Neogene (latest Miocene or earliest Pliocene; MN 13/14) locality of Maramena, in northern Greece. The herpetofauna is shown to be extremely diverse, comprising at least 30 different taxa. Amphibians include at least six urodelan (Cryptobranchidae indet., Salamandrina sp., Lissotriton sp. [Lissotriton vulgaris group], Lissotriton sp.,...

Université de Fribourg

A new alligatoroid from the Eocene of Vietnam highlights an extinct Asian clade independent from extant Alligator sinensis

Massonne, Tobias ; Vasilyan, Davit ; Rabi, Márton ; Böhme, Madelaine

In: PeerJ, 2019, vol. 7, p. e7562

During systematic paleontological surveys in the Na Duong Basin in North Vietnam between 2009 and 2012, well-preserved fossilized cranial and postcranial remains belonging to at least 29 individuals of a middle to late Eocene (late Bartonian to Priabonian age (39–35 Ma)) alligatoroid were collected. Comparative anatomical study of the material warrants the diagnosis of a new taxon,...

Université de Fribourg

Possible species-flock scenario for the evolution of the cyprinid genus Capoeta (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) within late Neogene lake systems of the Armenian Highland

Ayvazyan, Anna ; Vasilyan, Davit ; Böhme, Madelaine

In: PLOS ONE, 2019, vol. 14, no. 5, p. e0215543

We studied 4 Ma old isolated pharyngeal teeth from lake sediments of Çevirme (Tekman Palaeolake, Erzurum Province). Based on shape characters defined for 3D models of modern species, we found that the Pliocene lake constitutes sympatric occurrence of four Capoeta species (C. cf. umbla, C. cf. baliki, C. cf. sieboldi and C. sp. sevangi/capoeta), whose modern relatives belong to a monophyletic...