Cranial anatomy of a late Miocene rhizomyid, Brafhyrhizomys cf. B. pilgrimi, provides new evidence on the origin of the dorsal, round infraorbital foramen of living rhizomyines. Primitive rhizomyids retain a myomorphous keyhole foramen with a long ventral slit that retracts upward during the evolutionary history of the Rhizomyidae. The primitive condition of the elongated ventral slit is represented by Kanisamys sivalensis. Among later burrowers the foramen shows progressive dorsal migration, the ventral slit terminating midway up the snout in B.tertracharax and B. choristos ; well above the midline of the snout in Brachyrhizamys cf. B. pilgrimi. Apparently this transformation began earlier among Rhizomyinae than among Tachyoryctinae and continued to a more derived stage in rhizomyines. ln living Rhizomyx the ventral slit is absent and only a high round hole remains at the anterior end of the zygomatic arch. 

Messiphoca mauretanica nov. gen., nov. sp. représente le premier Phocidae fossile recensé en Afrique du Nord. Provenant du gisement sahélien (Miocène supérieur) de Raz-el-Aïn (Algérie), il est connu par quelques os du membre antérieur (humérus, radius, ulna), quelques vertèbres dorsales et un crâne très fragmentaire. La description de cette forme nouvelle amène à considérer Messiphoca mauretanica comme un Monachinae archaïque proche de l'origine du groupe Pliophoca - Monachus. L'incidence de cette interprétation d'un Phocidae «pré-Messinien ›› sur la crise de salinité du Messinien est aussi envisagée. 

Abstract not available 

Abstract not available 

Two species lineages of North American late Paleocene Plesiadapis exhibit a pattern of size divergence from a common ancestral lineage. Time series of fossils in each of these lineages are analyzed to test the idea that size divergence represents competitive character displacement. The critical factor in a test of character divergence is showing that divergent lineages evolved directionally rather than randomly (multifactorially). Analysis of evolutionary rates and their temporal scaling in Plesiadapis shows that both divergent species lineages have the scaling slope expected for lineages evolving randomly rather than directionally, and size divergence in Plesíadapis does not represent character displacement. Rates of evolution commonly observed on a per-generation time scale are high enough to produce character displacement within a few generations. Thus character displacement is not likely to be visible on scales of time that can be studied in the fossil record. 

An upper giraffid premolar without any indication about its origin is preserved at the Montpellier University among numerous fossils from the ruscinian formation of Montpellier. It can be related to Samotherium, of the Upper Miocene in Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia, or more probably to Bramatherium  or Hydaspitherium of the Pliocene of South East Asia. The sedimentological study of the matrix shows a calcareous background, which may indicate that this tooth does not come from the Montpellier formation. 

About the early radiation of Rodents, we have now from the early tertiary of Asia, a new fossil record, and
we can do new interpretations. First the problem of the origin of Rodents is studied : considered as a sister group of Lagomorpha, it is possible to find their ancestors between the Mixodontia. Second the new facts about the origin of modern groups of Rodents are reviewed. A general scheme of this diversification can be proposed. 

The study of that locality allowed the description of a new Muridae : Paraethomys athmeniae n. sp. It reveals the existence of new rodent for Algeria : first, a Sciuridae, Atlantoxerus cf. rhodius, and second, a Gliridae, Eliomys truci. So, that work shows the presence of the genus Eliomys in North Africa before the middle of Pleistocene. Lastly, Paraethomys cf. anomalus gives an exact datation of that bed. 

Functional morphology invertebrate paleontology, édité par Jeffrey J. THOMASON, 1995. Cambridge University Press, xi + 277 p. ISBN 0-521-44095-5, f. 45,00 ($ 69,95).

La morphologie fonctionnelle appliquée aux fossiles demeure un sujet à la fois passionnant et important. Passionnant, car elle s'adresse à des êtres disparus, aux combinaisons de caractères parfois inattendues et sans contrepartie chez les formes actuelles. Sujet important, car il faut, au delà de la constatation classique de l'adéquation de la forme des organes à leur fonction, expliquer l'origine des structures par évolution. L'évolution ou descendance avec modification, implique que les êtres vivants sont reliés les uns aux autres et qu'i! est possible de tenter à l'aide d'un raisonnement par inférence, la caractérisation des ancêtres en fonction des traits des formes auxquelles ils ont donné naissance. Mais il faut ajouter que par sa fonction, la structure relie immédiatement l'animal à son milieu puisqu'elle assure un rôle biologique. 

A new Tertiary megadermatid is described from Rackham's Roost Site, a Pliocene limestone cave deposit on Riversleigh Station, northwestern Queensland, Australia. It appears to represent the first Australian record of Megaderma GEOFFROY, 1810, a genus otherwise known from Tertiary African and European taxa and the living Asian species M. spasma (LINNAEUS, 1758) and M. (Lyroderma) lyra PETERS, 1872. Megademza richardsi n. sp. is one of the smallest megademiatids known. It exhibits a mixture of plesiomorphic and autapomorphic features, the latter appearing to exclude it from being ancestral to any living megadermatid. The new species is one of eight megadermatids identified from the Australian fossil record, most of which are referable to Macroderma MILLER, 1906. 

The Zanclian marls from Papiol provided otoliths belonging to 53 teleost taxa; nine of those are new for the Mediterranean Pliocene. The association reflects a bathymetry between 150 and 350 m, but it is likely that such depths only existed at the initial stage of flooding of the Llobregat bay. A compilation of the available data for the whole Mediterranean realm at Zanclian time provided a list of 163 taxa, of which 105 could be identified at species level. This last group provides the most useful data for evaluating the composition and affinities of the Mediterranean Zanclian fauna, which appears to be significantly different from the Recent Mediterranean fauna. The Zanclian fauna counts 68 % of Recent species: 12,5 % were already represented in the Mediterranean Miocene, 37 % appeared there at the Zanclian, and 18 % are extra-Mediterranean today. This last group is essentially composed by oceanic fishes, living in the warm parts of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. It is evident that a non neglectable number of Recent species only penetrated very recently in the Mediterranean, which stresses the differences between the more oceanic Zanclian Mediterranean fauna and the present one.


  

The species diversity of the mammalian fauna from Montredon (Hérault, France, late Miocene) is examined in terms of richness and abundance. A cenogramic analysis of the fossil mammalian community suggests the prevalence of open habitats, with the presence of marshes and of a poorly developed galery forest, and a climate rather warm and dry. 

Afin d'étudier la magnétostratigraphie de la colline de Montredon, j'ai prélevé en Avril 1982, 93 carottes orientées réparties sur 29 sites. J.-P. Aguilar et I. Loridant m'ont aidé durant cette opération. Pour la stratigraphie de la coupe échantillonnée et pour le contenu faunique des deux gisements de mammifères de cette colline, voir J.-P. Aguilar & J.-Y. Crochet (1982).
[...] 

The study of dental variations in Landenodon from Dormaal (early Eocene, Belgium) shows that only one
species is present in this locality : L. woutersi QUINET, 1968 (Condylarthra, Arctocyonidae, Arctocyoninae). A high morphological variability is described, especially concerning the metaconid of P/4, the paraconid of M/2, and some characters of M1/ which have been found to be independant of each other. This variability is discussed. 

Suite à la récente publication d'une révision systématique des Chiroptera Vespertilioninae, conduite sur la base des morphologies dentaires comparées (Menu 1987), une remarque bienveillante du Dr. V. Aellen (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève) a attiré l'attention de l'auteur sur un point précis du Code International de Nomenclature Zoologique. 

The teeth and the astragale of the Creodonta from Ste-Néboule (Lot) are referred to Hyaenodon brachyrhynchus. Isolated teeth fit morphologically the material from La Débruge (Middle Ludian). However, biometric analysis suggests an Upper Ludian age. 

The early gnathostome genus Mesacanthus is well represented in both Lower Old Red Sandstone and Middle Old Red Sandstone assemblages of northern and central Scotland. This ‘acanthodian’ taxon is currently thought to comprise two valid species: M. mitchelli and M. pusillus. Although the whereabouts of the holotype of M. mitchelli (NHMUK PV P560) is known, the syntype material for M. pusillus has long been thought lost. Here we identify at least one specimen that formed part of the original syntype material for M. pusillus, albeit in a slightly different condition than when it was originally figured. This specimen is ROM 25872, which is here designated as the lectotype. A second specimen – ELGNM 1978.191.1 – could represent another of the syntype specimens, but poor preservation quality makes it impossible to be certain. 

The subfamilies Murinae and "Dendromurinae" both include 4 species at Chorora. Among the former, while Preacomys nov. gen. seems to be a forerunner of Acomys, the affinities of the remaining, poorly known taxa, are more difficult to evaluate. The bulk of the fauna, remarkably, consists of Dendromurines. Their similarities with those of Ngorora tends to pull the site back in time, but the large size and diversity of Murines fit better an age more recent than the very beginning of the Late Miocene.

  

In this article is described a new species of Nyctitheriidae with primitive characters: Leptacodon nascimentoi n. sp. from the early Eocene of Silveirinha (Portugal). 

Le Mémoire Extraordinaire 1988 de PALAEOVERTEBRATA regroupe dix articles consacrés au gisement à mammifères du Miocène supérieur de Montredon (Hérault), connu et classique depuis la fin du siècle dernier, et auquel est lié le nom du savant paléontologue lyonnais Charles Depéret.
Cette monographie vient normalement à la suite de celle parue en 1982 dans PALAEOVERTEBRATA, dont les différents articles traitaient de la stratigraphie du gisement, et faisaient l'étude des différents groupes de micromammifères représentés dans la faune (insectivores, chiroptères, rongeurs).