Many types of insectivores have been described from specimens found in the Quercy phosphorites. These remains very often were not dated because they came from old collections. Recent excavations have permitted the situation of Amphidozotherium cayluxi FILHOL in the late Eocene. Two new genera are descrlbed based on material both from the old collections (Cryplotopos nov. g.) and from that recently recovered (Darbonetus nov. g., beginning of the middle Oligocene). Their systematic positions are revised and comparisons with American faunas are made. Amphidozotherium is not a talpid, but an erinaceoid belonging to an indeterminate family. Saturninia gracilis STHELIN is classified among the Nyctitheriinae, Myxomygale antiqua FILHOL among the Urotrichini Talpinae, and the genus Geotypus POMEL among the Scaptonichini Talpinae. A new study of the talpids from Auvergne has been rendered necessary. During the late Eocene and Oligocene precise morphology relationships existed between certain insectivores of Europe and North America. 

Voici un résumé concis en trois phrases :
Cet article décrit des restes importants de Diplobune minor Filhol, une espèce d’Anoplothériidé, issus du gisement d’Itardies (Quercy), découvert lors de la campagne de fouille de 1972. Le matériel comprend deux crânes, plusieurs mandibules et des éléments du squelette, notamment des pattes postérieures complètes, permettant une étude anatomique détaillée. L’espèce, auparavant mal connue, est caractérisée par une denture distinctive, avec des incisives puissantes, des prémolaires carénées, et des molaires à structure archaïque, ainsi que par des particularités squelettiques comme des métapodes allongés et des phalanges planes.
L’étude de ces restes permet de préciser la morphologie et la systématique de cette espèce, tout en soulignant la nécessité d’une analyse plus approfondie des éléments anatomiques. La faune d’Itardies, corrélée avec celle de Montalban, suggère que Diplobune minor est soit plus récente que le Sannoisien supérieur classique, soit moins localisée chronologiquement qu’on ne le pensait. 

Simpson (1937a) reconstructed the brain of the Paleocene multituberculate Ptilodus as having the olfactory bulbs widest anteriorly, an unusual condition among mammals. Slight preparation and reexamination of the endocast specimens of Ptilodus reveals that the olfactory bulbs in fact taper anteriorly, as in the recently-described endocranial casts of three multituberculate species from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, and as in those of other mammals. The brain of Ptilodus was therefore essentially of the same general pattem as in other multituberculates. Ptilodus differs, however, in having the vermis more deeply inserted between the cerebral hemispheres. Other details concerning the endocast morphology of Ptilodus are clarified.

The encephalization quotient (EQ) of Ptilodus is recalculated from revised estimates of both endocranial volume and body mass to fall somewhere within a broad range of values; from 0.41 to 0.62 if the olfactory bulbs are included and from 0.37 to 0.55 if they are not. In any case, the relative brain size of Ptilodus is roughly equivalent to that of Chulsanbaatar, the only other multituberculate for which EQ has been calculated, but considerably smaller than that of an average extant mammnal. 

This study describes four taxa of Gliridae from the Oligocene mammal locality Gröben 3: Gliravus tenuis BAI-ILO, 1975, Bransatoglis micio (MISONNE, 1957), B. planus (BAHLO, 1975) and B. heissigi n. sp. Gliravus tenuis from Gröben 3 is somewhat more advanced than the type population found in Heimersheim. This confirms previous research suggesting that Gröben 3 should be dated earlier than Heimersheim (MP 24). The first documented occurrence of B. mício around level MP 24 was found in Gröben 3. An abundance of tooth material from B. planus in Gröben 3 makes it possible, for the first time, to observe evolutionary stages within this species from MP 21 until MP 28. B. heissigi n. sp. is restricted to level MP 24. This species is located between B. mísonnei (MP 20 - 23) and Microdyromys praemurinus (MP 25 - 28). Within the lineage Bransatoglis bahloi - B. misonnei - B. heissigi, a decrease in size is noticeable.

  

Fossils of the Trionychidae, Bataguridae or Emydidae, Palaeophis and Crocodylia from Chattahoochee, NW Florida, USA, represent the first report of an Eocene reptile fauna from Florida. 

A rear skull from the Quercy Phosphorites is described. It documents a new perissodactyl genus, likely assignable to the family Palaeotheriidae and probably paleogene of age. Owing to the lack of any tooth, this family assignment remains however somewhat hypothetical. The specimen is firstly characterised by the presence of a wide epitympanic sinus swelling and hollowing the squamosal shell and the post-glenoid process. This cavity might make up a peculiar pattern of improvement for the hearing apparatus by carrying out a kind of drum near the middle ear, whereas the bony tympanic remains barely bulged and forms but a few developed auditory bulla. This pattern appears an outcome of a trend observed with many palaeotheriids, such as Plagiolophus. Furthermore, the endocranial cast shows a rather high degree of gyrencephaly for a paleogene mammal. The prominent lambdoidal crest points out a powerful nape musculature and a lowered head bearing. Consequently, it is assumed that such an animal was probably living in somewhat open places, at the expense of rather tough vegetables. It might have been accordingly provided with a semi-hypsodont, cement covered, "plagiolophoid" dentition. 

Sieving and washing of about 700 kg of sediment from the miocene site at Montpeyroux produced otoliths of 34 teleost species, of which four still occur in the present day fauna or are near to extant species. Among the fossil species, eight are new : Ilisha lerichei, «genus Clupeidarum ›› orbiculatus, Dipulus mediterraneus, Morone cornuta, Chanda nelsoni, Pomadasys steurbauti, «genus Sciaenidarum ›› barthassadensis and Paraplagusia roseni. The fauna found is typical for a tropical or subtropical very littoral, probably even estuarine environment; it was living in a period near the boundary between Lower and Middle Miocene, perhaps somewhat earlier. 

Two new finds of pantodont materials from southern China, assigned to Archaeolambda, are described in this paper. One, a new species from the Nanxiong Basin, Guangdong Province, is similar to Alcidedorbignya inopinata from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa, Bolivia in size. It provides reliable evidence of the occurrence of Archaeolambda in the early-middle Paleocene of southern China. The second find includes specimens of Archaeolambda sp. cf. A. planicanina from the ?late Paleocene of Hengyang Basin, Hunan Province, which are the first record of a fossil mammal from the area near Hengyang city. The only vertebrate fossils previously found here were two genera of crocodiles discovered in 1938. This find sheds new light on the local biostratigraphy. 

Prolagus sardus is the last representative of the diverse lineages of European endemic ochotonids. It is also the most abundant in the collections. The previous studies made of this species have established rather well its dental morphology, its phylogenetic position, its geographic and temporal distribution, and its intraspecific individual variation. On the other hand, no osteologic study has fully utilized the superb material from Corsica and Sardinia  collected by Forsyth Major.
Nearly all of the parts of the skeleton are represented in this material; they are here described and figured. Comparisons are made with Ochotona, the only surviving genus of the family, as well as with the living leporids, in particular Romerolagus, Oryctolagus and Lepus. A brief examination of the dentition reveals some particular characters of the incisors. The osteologic study allows limited interpretations to be advanced concerning the posture, mastication. locomotion and some other adaptive features of P. sardus.
P. sardus appears as an incontestable ochotonid, but it differs from Ochotona by some characters which are found in leporids. Certain of the characters are here judged primitive for lagomorphs. The genus Ochotona therefore can no longer be considered as the image of a primitive lagomorph, because in spite of the lack of cursorial adaptations which differentiate it from leporids, it presents other specializations which are common to it alone. 

The fauna studied in the following work involves the dentitions and skulls more or less complete of 5 genera, among which only Cephalomys was previously known by its skull. One must notice that the Salla's species of this genus is a new one. Sallamys, rather small, shows a dentition rather similar to that of Platypittamys Wood from Patagonia. The upper molars, more primitive than those of this last genus, according to the smaller dimensions of the hypocone, retain a distinct metaloph. This metaloph tends to be reduced in a way which may give us a possibility to understand how it disappeared in Platypittamys. The upper P4 can be compared as well to that of Platypittamys as to that of Gaudeamus from the African Oligocene. The lower P4, more molarized than that of Platypittamys, is already moving towards the miocene type of structure. The infraorbital foramen is wide and the insertion of the masseter on the muzzle is spacious. Branisamys, genus of a great size, shows an auditory region partly preserved, peculiarly the promontorium with the fenestra rotunda, entirely of the Hystricognathi type. Upper molars are very clearly pentalophodont. A new reconstruction is proposed for the tooth called Villarroelomys by Hartenberger. This tooth is shown to be a lower D4, perhaps of Branisamys , certainly of a rather nearly allied form, and Hartenberger does agree with the essential part of this new conclusion. Of Incamys, two incomplete skulls are known, each one being admitted to be the type of a distinct species, the first one being I. bolivianus, I. pretiosus the second. The infraorbital foramen is of a great size and the impression of the masseter on the muzzle is spacious. The sphenopalatine foramen is widely developed and of a really very uncommon great size. Only Thryonomys from Africa shows a similar tendency to the enlargement of this foramen, but not so extreme. The main basicranial foramina can be observed. The upper teeth, hemi-hypsodont, show, either a vestigial metaloph, similar to that of recent Thryonomys from Africa, associated with a well developed mesoloph, either a well developed metaloph, while the mesoloph is reduced or absent. Cephalomys was previously known by anterior parts of the skull showing a wide infraorbital foramen and a spacious facial insertion of the masseter. Its lacrymal is of the phiomorph type and the spheno-palatine foramen is seemingly of great size, like in Incamys. The species is new. The varied peculiarities of the upper teeth of these genera can be easily understood if we refer to the plan of the teeth of Phiomys andrewsi from the Oligocene and Miocene of Africa. The structure of this genus, clearly more primitive, still typically brachyodont, shows and clearly explains the fundamental coherence of the varied realisations arised from such a structure. Luribayomys n.g. is known only by an anterior half of a skull without teeth. It is remarquable by the great development of the masseter's insertions on the muzzle and by the lacrymal region, well preserved, typically phiomorphid. The classification previously published by A.E. Wood and B. Patterson is granted in its essential parts, provisionally, but not as a definitive solution. Nevertheless the Dasyproctidae are integrated within the Cavioidea, following the conclusions of Bugge and of Vucetich, reached independently. The conclusion emphasizes the exceptional meaning of the fauna of Salla-Luribay. This shows that Platypittamys, while interesting, can no more be supposed certainly representative of the normal structure of the Oligocene Caviomorph, and not even of their ancestors. The anatomical peculiarities exhibited in these new samples, auditory region, lacrymal, spheno-palatine foramen, reinforce the primitive structural identity with the Phiomorpha. Similarly, the new lower D4 favour very close relationships, ever if the affinities of the D4 has been questioned or minimized by Wood and Patterson. It is certainly possible to admit that parallelism could explain limited similarities, like the presence in North America of Rodents with an hystricomorph type of infraorbital foramen and an hystricognath mandible. But if the parallelism could be a sufficient explanation of the identical association of multiple and complete structures observed in the Caviomorpha and Phiomorpha, all the Zoological systematic would have to be questioned. The last positions of A.E. Wood on the subject (1975) are revised and criticised, and the recent publications studying the problems of distance between Africa and South America in Eocene time, as a consequence of the drift, are quoted; the possibility of transportation by rafts is shown. A new hypothesis is proposed about the interrelationships of Pentalophodont Rodents, with interesting paleobiogeographic implications. 

Four new taxa (two genera, one subgenus, and four species) conceming the orders Condylarthra, Rodentia, Pantolesta, and an undetermined order from middle and middle/upper Ilerdian localities (lower Ypresian) of the Corbières and Minervois regions (Bas-Languedoc, Southem France) are presented in this short paper 

Saturnin Garimond (1914-1987), naturaliste autodidacte né à Fons-outre-Gardon dans le Gard, a marqué la paléontologie et l'archéologie régionale par sa passion précoce pour les sciences naturelles. Quittant l'école à 10 ans, il s'instruit seul et explore inlassablement la garrigue, découvrant des sites préhistoriques dès 1930. Collaborant avec Camille Hugues, il fouille de nombreux gisements, dont la grotte de la Verrerie à Montmirat, révélant un outillage moustérien et des restes de néandertaliens. En 1961, il rejoint le Laboratoire de Paléontologie de Montpellier dirigé par Louis Thaler, contribuant à des fouilles majeures comme celle du gisement de Fons 4. En 1965, il permet la découverte du premier mammifère mésozoïque de France au gisement de Champ-Garimond. Membre de la Société Géologique de France, son érudition et sa collaboration ont enrichi de nombreuses recherches. Homme simple et affable, il a marqué tous ceux qui l'ont connu par son enthousiasme et ses connaissances encyclopédiques. 

Palaeotis weigelti, from the Middle Eocene of central Europe, is a flightless, paleognathous bird. It appears to be a member of the ostrich lineage on the basis of trivial derived characters. It is a very primitive ratite, however, and does not possess any of the highly specialized cursorial adaptations that characterize the modern steppe -and savanna- dwelling ostriches. 

In the course of a revision of the Equoidea numerous dentitions as well as a partial skeleton of a Phenaeodont were discovered from the Middle Eocene lignite beds of the Geiseltal locality. These fossils are recognized as a new genus and species of Phenacodontidae : HaIlensia matthesi n.g. n.sp.. The species is present in the « untere und obere Unterkohle ›› (uUK, oUK = the lower and upper part of the Lower Coal Seam) as well as in the « obere Mittelkohle ›› (oMK = the upper part of the Middle Coal Seam). Two fragmentary upper jaws described and figured by Matthes (1977) as Propachynolophus gaudryi are also belonging to Hallensia matthesi. Thus the decisive argument for classifying the " Unterkohle " of the Geiseltal section as Lower Eocene has to be dropped. Another relict form of the Geiseltal is Esthonyx tardus n. sp. documented by a fragmentary mandible coming from the « untere Unterkohle ››. This is the latest Tillodont from Europe. Contrasting to E. munieri from the european Lower Eocene the dentition of E. tardus is morphologically more progressive. 

The Montredon site has yielded about hundred rhinoceros remains:
- twenty two of them, including 14 carpal and tarsal bones and 6 complete metapodials, belong to
Dicerorhinus schleiermacheri at its second evolutionary stage;
- fifty one remains including a nearby complete but crushed skull, a mandible, 26 isolated cheek-teeth, 10 carpals and tarsals, one metacarpal, are of Aceratherium incisivum, second evolutionary
stage;
- fifteen remains belong to Aceratherium (Alicornops) simorrense (among other an upper molar, 8 carpals and tarsals, one metatarsal);
- six remains are attributed to an undetermined species of what is probably the most recent Prosantorhinus ever found.
The evolution stages of the two first species allow us to date the deposit back to the Upper Vallesian, MN 10 zone; Montredon is one of the youngest sites in which Aceratherium simorrense was found. The four rhino species indicate a swampy forest biotope 

Besides Dendromurids and Murids, the Chorora Rodents include 7 taxa, two of which are new. Afaromys nov. gen. is a Cricetodontine with very complicated lower molars, certainly isolated for a long time from Eurasian species. A Paraphiomys, with tetralophodont upper molars, is also quite different from other East African species, and its roots should probably he searched in the middle Miocene. Other taxa are less original, and more similar to the South Asiatic ones. 

The discovery in the Turolian (Late Miocene) of Dytiko 3 (Macedonia, Greece) of a complete skull with mandibles and cervical vertebrae, atlas and epistropheus, is a very important contribution to the knowledge of the subfarnily Chalicotheríinae. After the description, the comparison with other specimens of Miocene chalicotheres permits the revival of the generic name Macrotherium with a new species M. macedonicum. This genus is mainly characterized by a short snout and an inflated cerebral skull. It coexists during the Miocene with Chalicotherium. A cladistic analysis leads to conclusion that the species which has been described from the Early Middle Miocene of Rusinga must be identified as the type-species of a new genus: Butleria.





  

Until the discovery of dinosaur eggshells locality in the Oukdiksou syncline, (Middle Atlas, Morocco) in 1999 (Garcia et al. this volume) the maastrichtian reptiles faunas were unknown in North Africa. Additional material from Achlouj-2 allows us to describe five oospecies, belonging to four oofamilies. The Megaloolithidae is recorded by Megaloolithus maghrebiellsis Garcia el al. and Pseudomegaloolithus atlasi oogen. novo oospec. nov. Tipoolithus achloujensis Garcia et al. is questionably considered as a Subtiliolithidae. A relatively small Elongatoloolithidae is represented by Rodolphoolithus arioul oogen. nov. oospec. nov. A thin Prismatoolithidae is described as a new oospecies of ? Pseudogeckoolithus Vianey-Liaud & Lopez-Martinez, 1997: P. tirboulensis. The diversity of these oospecies indicates that the dinosaur fauna comprises at least five dinosaur oospecies, with perhaps one sauropod and three theropods. 

The presence at Silveirinha of one of the earliest, ? Late Paleocene or Lowermost Eocene, european representatives of the genus Diplocynodon is based mostly on isolated bones and teeth (often from juveniles). This small-sized form is the only crocodilian so far recognized in this site. The longevity of Diplocynodon in Portugal becomes much extended; the genus survived there until the Middle Miocene at least. A discussion on the possible affinities with other eocene Díplocynodon and especially those from Cubillos-Valdegallina (Zamora, Spain) is presented. On the other hand, differences have been detected in comparison with: Díplocynodon tormis, from the middle Eocene of the Douro basin in Spain, which may belong to another phyletic line; and the aff. Diplocynodon from Dormaal (Belgium) and Le Quesnoy (France), nearly contemporaneous of Silveirinha. The Silveirinha Diplocynodon and many other data strongly suggest moist, subtropical, quite limited in space environments related to an alluvial plain crossed by small, meandering channels. 

The fauna from three new rodent localities (Castelmaurou, Grépiac-carrière et Grépiac-rive gauche) from Oligo-Miocene molasses of the Toulouse area is described. The one from Colomiers is completed. 11 species belonging to 4 families (Cricetidae, Eomyidae, Gliridae, Sciuridae) are present. The Miocene localities of Grépiac-carrière and Colomiers are correlated with Balizac, La Brète, Lambert and Lespignan. Grépiac-rive gauche is just a little older than these sites. Castelmaurou is somewhat younger than La Milloque and belongs to Oligocene.