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First diatomyid rodent from the Early Miocene of Arabia

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Abstract

The Asian family Diatomyidae is known from the Early Oligocene to the present. Among living rodents, this group comprises only the recently discovered Laonastes aenigmamus from Laos. Fossil diatomyids are known from only a few sites, in which they are often rare. The discovery of Pierremus explorator gen. nov. sp. nov. in the Lower Miocene of As-Sarrar (Saudi Arabia) raises to ten the number of extinct diatomyid species recognized. Pierremus explorator is the first record of a diatomyid from the Afro-Arabian plate. This discovery provides evidence that, together with other rodents (ctenodactylids, zapodids…), the diatomyids took advantage of the corridor that was established between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia in Early Miocene times.

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Acknowledgments

The rodent remains from Saudi Arabia were collected during field campaigns organized by H. Thomas (Collège de France, Paris) with permission of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in Riyadh. S. Sen (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris) kindly lent the specimen for study. The author thanks M. A. Álvarez-Sierra (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), R. Asher (University of Cambridge, Cambridge), L. Flynn (Harvard University, Cambridge), L. Marivaux (Université Montpellier II, Montpellier), P. Mein (Université Lyon I, Villeurbanne), P. Peláez-Campomanes (Museo nacional de Ciencias naturales-CSIC, Madrid) and the anonymous reviewers who helped to improve this work. Thanks are due to M. Pickford (Collège de France, Paris) for correcting the English of the manuscript. The author is currently supported by the Ramón y Cajal Program and the research project CGL2008-05813-CO2-01 directed by J. Morales (Museo nacional de Ciencias naturales-CSIC, Madrid).

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  1. Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo nacional de Ciencias naturales-CSIC, c/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, Madrid, 28006, Spain

    Raquel López-Antoñanzas

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  1. Raquel López-Antoñanzas
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Correspondence to Raquel López-Antoñanzas.

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López-Antoñanzas, R. First diatomyid rodent from the Early Miocene of Arabia. Naturwissenschaften 98, 117–123 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0745-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0745-0

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