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New Latonia (Amphibia: Alytidae) from the late Miocene of northern Caucasus (Russia)

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Abstract

A new species of Latonia, based on isolated cranial and postcranial bones from the late Miocene of the Volchaya Balka locality (early Turolian, MN 11) in N Caucasus, represents the easternmost hitherto known Latonia population and the first well-preserved and unambiguous record of Latonia in Russia. It belongs among those species of Latonia that have smooth maxillae and moderately sculptured frontoparietal. Although Latonia is a common anuran in the fossil record of Europe from the Oligocene to Recent, its fragmentary nature (both articulated skeletons and disarticulated bones) prevents reliable taxonomic conclusions. This is why species-specific diagnostic characters should be verified in order to confirm validity of currently recognised species.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to fellow members of the expeditions to the Volchaya Balka locality for collecting specimens, assistance in the field, and collaboration: V.V. Titov and S.V. Kurshakov (Institute of Arid Zones, Rostov-on-Don, Russia); A.S. Tesakov and P.D. Frolov (Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia); N.V. Volkova (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia); A.A. Lissovsky, E.V. Obolenskaya and S.A. Tesakov (Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia); and I.A. Kazanov (Belaya Kalitva Polytechnic Technical School, Belaya Kalitva, Russia). We are greatly indebted to the late J.-C. Rage (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France) for providing literature and additional information about L. ragei, to R. Biton (National Natural History Collections, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel) and S. Gafny (Ruppin Academic Center, School of Marine Sciences, Michmoret, Israel) for providing literature and additional information about L. nigriventer; S. van de Velde, D. van der Marel, A. Speksnijder, R. Langelaan (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands), A. Schulp, J. Willem Pette, and H. Voogd (Teylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands) for providing a CT scan of L. seyfriedi (specimen TMH 8438 from Teylers Museum, The Netherlands). We are grateful to both reviewers, Amy Henrici (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, USA) and Borja Sanchiz (The National Museum of Natural Sciences, Spain), for their useful comments and suggestions. We also thank R. Rakitov (Borissiak Paleontological Institute RAS, Moscow) for helping us to take scanning electron image. ES was supported by the Russian Scientific Fund № 18-74-10081 and the government theme АААА-А17-117030310017-8, ZR from the research plan of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO67985831).

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  1. Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 123, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    Elena Syromyatnikova

  2. Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya emb. 1, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Elena Syromyatnikova

  3. Laboratory of Palaeobiology, Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Rozvojová 135, 165 00, Prague, Czech Republic

    Zbyněk Roček

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  1. Elena Syromyatnikova
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Correspondence to Elena Syromyatnikova.

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This article is registered in Zoobank under: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:99D9520A-9C25-4841-9DBE-A5D32ACDCA52

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Syromyatnikova, E., Roček, Z. New Latonia (Amphibia: Alytidae) from the late Miocene of northern Caucasus (Russia). Palaeobio Palaeoenv 99, 495–509 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-018-0350-3

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