Arnau Bolet

Lizards and amphisbaenians (Reptilia, Squamata) from the late Eocene of Sossís (Catalonia, Spain)

A new diverse late Eocene lizard and amphisbaenian assemblage from the classical mammal locality of Sossis (Catalonia, Spain) is described. It represents the first Paleogene lizard assemblage from Spain and the first late Eocene lizard locality from the Iberian Peninsula. The family-level composition of the assemblage replicates that of other contemporaneous European localities, with the presence of iguanians, geckos, lacertids, scincids, cordyliforms, amphisbaenians, anguines, and glyptosaurines. Many of these families still occur in Catalonia, but the presence of thermophilic taxa like iguanians and cordyliforms are indicative of warmer conditions during the Eocene. The closest faunal match is with the contemporaneous French localities of the Phosphorites du Quercy. Sossis and other newly recovered Paleogene Spanish squamate assemblages have the potential to contribute to an understanding of patterns of faunal interchange between different Paleogene bioprovinces, complementing existing data on mammals.

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and early Permian ichnoassemblage from the NE Iberian Peninsula (Pyrenean Basin)

This work was supported by the SYNTHESYS Project (E.M., DE-TAF-2560 at MfN, and FR-TAF-3621 and FR-TAF-4808 at MNHN; http://www.synthesys.info/) and Secretaria d’Universitats i de Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (E.M., expedient number 2013 CTP 00013, at ISE-M) for visits to collections. E.M. received financial support from the PIF grant of the Geology Department at UAB. Field works have been developed on the project ‘Vertebrats del Permia i el Triasic de Catalunya i el seu context geologic’ and ‘Evolucio dels ecosistemes amb faunes de vertebrats del Permia i el Triasic de Catalunya’ (ref. 2014/100606), based at Institut Catala de Paleontologia and we acknowledge the financial support of the‘Departament de Cultura (Generalitat de Catalunya)’.

Early Miocene dispersal of the lizard Varanus into Europe: Reassessment of vertebral material from Spain

Iberovaranus Hoffstetter, 1969 was erected as a monotypic genus of varanine varanid lizard on the basis of a single trunk vertebra from the Miocene of Spain. Thanks to the study of the holotype, as well as of a still undescribed cervical vertebra from the same locality, we show that the vertebral morphology of Iberovaranus is contained within the known variability of Varanus. Therefore, Iberovaranus Hoffstetter, 1969 is considered a subjective junior synonym of Varanus Merrem, 1820, and the species Iberovaranus catalaunicus Hoffstetter, 1969 should be considered a nomen dubium.

An archosauromorph dominated ichnoassemblage in fluvial settings from the late Early Triassic of the Catalan Pyrenees (NE Iberian Peninsula)

The vertebrate recovery after the end-Permian mass extinction can be approached through the ichnological record, which is much more abundant than body fossils. The late Olenekian (Early Triassic) tetrapod ichnoassemblage of the Catalan Pyrenean Basin is the most complete and diverse of this age from Western Tethys. This extensional basin, composed of several depocenters, was formed in the latest phases of the Variscan orogeny (Pangea breakup) and was infilled by braided and meandering fluvial systems of the red-beds Buntsandstein facies. Abundant and diverse tetrapod ichnites are recorded in these facies, including Prorotodactylus mesaxonichnus isp. nov. (tracks possibly produced by euparkeriids), cf. Rotodactylus, at least two large chirotheriid morphotypes (archosauriform trackmakers), Rhynchosauroides cf. schochardti, two other undetermined Rhynchosauroides forms, an undetermined Morphotype A (archosauromorph trackmakers) and two types of Characichnos isp. (swimming traces, here associated to archosauromorph trackmakers). The Pyrenean ichnoassemblage suggests a relatively homogeneous ichnofaunal composition through the late Early Triassic of Central Pangea, characterized by the presence of Prorotodactylus and Rotodactylus. Small archosauromorph tracks dominate and present a wide distribution through the different fluviatile facies of the Triassic Pyrenean Basin, with large archosaurian footprints being present in a lesser degree. Archosauromorphs radiated and diversified through the Triassic vertebrate recovery, which ultimately lead to the archosaur and dinosaur dominance of the Mesozoic.

An amphisbaenian skull from the European miocene and the evolution of Mediterranean worm lizards.

The evolution of blanid amphisbaenians (Mediterranean worm lizards) is mainly inferred based on molecular studies, despite their fossils are common in Cenozoic European localities. This is because the fossil record exclusively consists in isolated elements of limited taxonomic value. We describe the only known fossil amphisbaenian skull from Europe – attributed to Blanus mendezi sp. nov. (Amphisbaenia, Blanidae) – which represents the most informative fossil blanid material ever described. This specimen, from the Middle Miocene of Abocador de Can Mata (11.6 Ma, MN7+8) in the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula), unambiguously asserts the presence of Blanus in the Miocene of Europe. This reinforces the referral to this genus of the previously-known, much more incomplete and poorly-diagnostic material from other localities of the European Neogene. Our analysis – integrating the available molecular, paleontological and biogeographic data – suggests that the new species postdates the divergence between the two main (Eastern and Western Mediterranean) extant clades of blanids, and probably precedes the split between the Iberian and North-Western African subclades. This supports previous paleobiogeographic scenarios for blanid evolution and provides a significant minimum divergence time for calibrating molecular analyses of blanid phylogeny.

First early Eocene lizards from Spain and a study of the compositional changes between late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic Iberian lizard assemblages

Lizard and amphisbaenian fossil material is described for the first time from early Eocene localities in Spain, more specifically from Catalonia (north-eastern Iberian Peninsula). Material is fragmentary and scarce, but diagnostic enough to provide a first approach to the composition of lizard assemblages. The following taxa are recorded: Geiseltaliellus and a second indeterminate pleurodont iguanid; an agamid similar to “Tinosaurus”; an indeterminate gekkotan; a scincoid, possibly scincid lizard; a lacertid similar to Dormaalisaurus; an indeterminate amphisbaenian; a glyptosaurin glyptosaurine (cf. Placosaurus); an indeterminate anguine; and, finally, an indeterminate “necrosaur.” The studied localities range from the MP8+9 to the MP10, and thus complement the only previously known lizard locality of the Iberian early Eocene, the Portuguese locality of Silveirinha, which corresponds to the MP7. An analysis of the composition of these new assemblages suggests a great amount of homogeneity through the different levels of the early Eocene, and also between Iberian and contemporaneous assemblages from the rest of Europe. The lack of an Iberian Paleocene record for lizards strengthens the importance of the study of early Eocene assemblages because these are the only ones available for comparison with Cretaceous associations, providing critical information on the changes in composition between Mesozoic and early Cenozoic lizard faunas related to the K/Pg extinction event.

A new miniaturized lizard from the late Eocene of France and Spain.

We report here a new lizard genus and species shared by two late Eocene localities situated at both versants of the present Pyrenees (South‐Western Europe), one located in France (Escamps, MP19), and the other in Catalonia, Spain (Sossís, MP17a). The recovered specimens are remarkable because of their small size and peculiar morphology. Features of the dentary are interpreted as adaptations to a fossorial or semi‐fossorial lifestyle, although such modifications obscure the exact phylogenetic relationships of the new taxon. We suggest that it might represent a further example of scincoid lizard that independently achieved adaptations for burrowing or surface‐dwelling. This taxon reinforces the hypotheses that link the Southern Pyrenean assemblages to those from France rather than to those of the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, which are supposed to be somehow isolated and endemic to a certain degree during the middle and late Eocene, forming part of the so‐called Western Iberian Bioprovince. Anat Rec, 297:505–515, 2014.

Rediscovery of the Long-Lost Holotype of the Lacertid Lizard Pseudeumeces cadurcensis (Filhol, 1877)

Citation for this article: Bolet, A., J.-C. Rage, and J. L. Conrad. 2017. Rediscovery of the long-lost holotype of the lacertid lizard Pseudeumeces cadurcensis (Filhol, 1877). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1315669.

New genus and species names for the Eocene lizard Cadurcogekko rugosus Augé, 2005

Cadurcogekko rugosus Augé, 2005 was described as a gekkotan lizard from the Eocene of France. A revision of the material has revealed that the holotype, a nearly complete dentary, actually belongs to a scincid lizard, for which we erect the new genus Gekkomimus. The rest of material originally referred to C. rugosus is of undoubted gekkotan nature and is included in the new species Cadurcogekko verus, with the exception of a partial left dentary belonging to the iguanid lizard Cadurciguana hoffstetteri.

Rhynchosauroides Footprint Variability in a Muschelkalk Detrital Interval (Late Anisian–Middle Ladinian) from the Catalan Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)

ABSTRACT The Middle Triassic successions of coastal and distal alluvial systems are often characterized by the presence of the tetrapod ichnotaxon Rhynchosauroides. Nevertheless, few studies paid attention on the paleoenvironmental implications of this widely distributed ichnogenus. The finding of a new Rhynchosauroides-dominated tracksite opens the window to the use of such footprints in paleoenvironmental studies. The tracksite is located in the active quarry of Pedrera de Can Sallent, at Castellar del Vallès (Catalan Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula). The footprints were recovered from the Middle Muschelkalk detrital unit, composed of a claystone-sandstone-gypsum succession from a sabkha setting of late Anisian-middle Ladinian age. This unit was deposited during a short regression interval within the main Middle Triassic transgression represented by the Muschelkalk facies. The ichnoassociation is composed of Rhynchosauroides isp., and a single, partially preserved, undetermined large footprint. Among Rhynchosauroides specimens, three different preservation states were recognized, corresponding to substrates in (1) subaqueous conditions (surfaces with scarce, deformed, and deeply impressed ichnites), (2) occasionally flooded (mostly trampled surfaces, footprints commonly well preserved), and (3) subaerial exposition (surfaces with few footprints, sometimes corresponding to faint impressions or only preserved by claw marks). The footprint morphological variations of Rhynchosauroides are correlated to substrate rheology and further to the environmental conditions. Rhynchosauroides is a characteristic morphotype that often dominates in the Anisian-Ladinian coastal and distal alluvial settings of several European tracksites. Therefore, these ichnoassociations in such environments, awaiting further detailed analyses, may constitute a distinct ichnocoenosis.