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The chalicothere Metaschizotherium bavaricum (Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae, Schizotheriinae) from the Miocene (MN5) Lagerstätte of Sandelzhausen (Germany): description, comparison, and paleoecological significance

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Kurzfassung

Aus der Fossillagerstätte Sandelzhausen in der Oberen Süßwasser Molasse bei Mainburg (Deutschland) ist das schizotherine Krallentier Metaschizotherium bavaricum, von Koenigswald, 1932 belegt. Dieses neue Material erlaubt erstmals die detaillierte Beschreibung von Bezahnung und postcranialem Skelett von Metaschizotherium. Mit einem Alter von ca. 16 Mio Jahren (MN5) ist M. bavaricum derzeit das am besten belegte schizotherine Krallentier des Unter- und Mittelmiozäns Europas und von großer Bedeutung für vergleichende Studien. Es underscheidet sich nur in geringem Maße von Material aus dem Untermiozän (MN2–MN4) Europas, das Moropus sp. oder Metaschizotherium wetzleri (Kowalewsky, 1873) zugeordnet wurde, differiert aber deutlich von der obermiozänen Art Ancylotherium pentelicum (Gaudry and Lartet, 1856). In Sandelzhausen lebte M. bavaricum offensichtlich in einem feuchten, bewaldeten Lebensraum und ernährte sich wahrscheinlich von Blättern, Früchten und Samen. Andere Vertreter von den Chalicotheriinae, wie z.B. Anisodon oder Chalicotherium, finden sich in Sandelzhausen nicht und waren wohl in dieser Zeit generell in Europa nicht beheimatet. Wie auch andere schizotherine Chalicotherien, so zeichnete sich auch M. bavaricum nicht durch die bizarre Gorilla-artigen Körperproportion aus, sondern ähnelt dem generellen Körperbauplan anderer zeitgleicher schizotheriner Krallentiere auf anderen Kontinenten, wie z.B. Moropus aus Nordamerika. M. bavaricum ist geringfügig kleiner als die Typusart Metaschizotherium fraasi von Koenigswald, 1932 (MN6–MN7) und unterscheidet sich davon nur in geringem Maße, wobei die Abgrenzung zwischen morphologischer Variation und tatsächlichen Unterschieden zwischen den beiden Arten weiterer Untersuchungen bedarf. Das schizotherine Krallentier von La Grive St.-Alban (Frankreich), das von Koenigswald (Palaeontographica, Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Vorzeit 8:1–24, 1932) und Viret (Nouvelles Archives Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Lyon 6:53–81, 1961) zu M. fraasi gestellt wurde, sollte neuerlich untersucht und möglichweise einer anderen Art zugeordnet werden.

Abstract

Within the fossil collection from the Sandelzhausen Lagerstätte in the Upper Freshwater Molasse near Mainburg, Germany, are remains of the schizotheriine chalicothere Metaschizotherium bavaricum, von Koenigswald, 1932. This new material includes elements from a large part of the body, and allows the dentition and postcranial skeleton of Metaschizotherium to be described in detail for the first time. At approximately 16 Ma (MN5), M. bavaricum is now the best-known Early and Middle Miocene European schizotheriine and is important for comparative studies. It differs to some degree from earlier Miocene (MN2–MN4) European material attributed to Moropus sp. or Metaschizotherium wetzleri (Kowalewsky, 1873) and to a larger degree from the Late Miocene species Ancylotherium pentelicum (Gaudry and Lartet, 1856). At Sandelzhausen, M. bavaricum apparently lived in a moist forested environment, where it probably fed on leaves, fruit, and seeds. Members of the Chalicotheriinae, such as Anisodon and Chalicotherium, are not found at Sandelzhausen and may not have been present in Europe at this time. M. bavaricum, like other Schizotheriinae, did not have the bizarre gorilla-like proportions of the Chalicotheriinae. Instead, its general body proportions resemble those of contemporary schizotheriine chalicotheres on other continents, for example, Moropus from North America. M. bavaricum is slightly smaller than the type species of Metaschizotherium, M. fraasi von Koenigswald, 1932 (MN6–MN7) and differs from it in small ways that are still being explored as variation within and differences between these species are clarified. The schizotheriine chalicothere from La Grive St.-Alban (France) referred to M. fraasi by von Koenigswald (Palaeontographica, Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Vorzeit 8:1–24, 1932) and Viret (Nouvelles Archives Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Lyon 6:53–81, 1961) should be restudied and referred to a different taxon.

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Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I thank my Munich colleagues, Drs. Gertrud Rössner, Kurt Heissig, and Volker Fahlbusch for allowing me to work on the Sandelzhausen chalicothere and for inviting my participation in the Sandelzhausen Symposium 2005 in Mainburg, Germany. When Volker first allowed me to see the beginnings of the Sandelzhausen chalicothere collection in 1972, I was much impressed with the quality of the material. I never anticipated having the opportunity to publish on it, and doing so now, on a greatly augmented collection, has been a special privilege for me. Drs. Rössner, Heissig, and Fahlbusch also devoted much time to showing me the collections, explaining the mapping and cataloguing system, and answering in English my numerous questions. Dr. Ursula Göhlich provided useful insights on the Sandelzhausen proboscideans and located the chalicothere patellae that had strayed into the proboscidean collection. Careful reviews by Dr. Heissig and by Dr. Robert M. Hunt, Jr. helped to improve this manuscript. Mr. Georg Janssen of the BSPG kindly provided a large number of the photographic illustrations, Dr. Walter Coombs helped with additional photographs, and Mr. Eric Dewar gave computer support in production of the figures. I also thank the other members of the Sandelzhausen Symposium for their good fellowship and many stimulating thoughts on the Sandelzhausen fauna and its depositional environment. My research travel was funded by the Freunde der Bayerische Staatsammlung für Paläontologie und Historische Geologie München e.V. Grant funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (GZ 4850/88/05) financed my participation in the Sandelzhausen Symposium. I am grateful to the citizens of Mainburg and their mayor, Josef Egger, for their excellent hospitality. I thank Dr. Michael Rummel for allowing me access to collections at the Naturmuseum Augsburg and for allowing me to see his chalicothere collection from Petersbuch. I am also grateful to Ms. Julia Fahlke for sharing thoughts based on her study of the Petersbuch collection. In addition to my recent museum visits, the comparative part of my study has profited greatly by examination of relevant materials at other museums over the years, most particularly the Amherst College Museum of Natural History (Amherst), the American Museum of Natural History (New York), the University of California Museum of Paleontology (Berkeley), the British Museum of Natural History (London), the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), the Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut der Universität Würzburg (Würzburg), the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde (Ludwigsburg), the Landesmuseum Joanneum (Graz), and the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Lyon (Lyon).

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  1. Department of Biology and Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Margery C. Coombs

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Correspondence to Margery C. Coombs.

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Coombs, M.C. The chalicothere Metaschizotherium bavaricum (Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae, Schizotheriinae) from the Miocene (MN5) Lagerstätte of Sandelzhausen (Germany): description, comparison, and paleoecological significance. Paläontol Z 83, 85–129 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-009-0004-x

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