JURASSICA Museum, Route de Fontenais 21, 2900, Porrentruy, Switzerland.
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Chemin du musée 6, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 17;10(1):2733. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59255-1.
The Batrachosauroididae are an enigmatic group of salamanders known from the Cretaceous and Tertiary of North America and Europe. In Europe, the family is known only by two species of the genus Palaeoproteus. The genus has limited distribution in Western and Central Europe. In the present paper, we describe a new species, Palaeoproteus miocenicus, from the early late Miocene (11-9 Ma) of Austria and Ukraine, representing the youngest record of the family Batrachosauroididae from the Neogene of Europe. The new species differs from the Paleogene representatives of the genus by 12 characters, including large body size, the long anterior extension of the Meckelian groove and the size and shape of the odontoid process on the dentary. The µCT scanning of bones of the new species revealed novel features (e.g. anterior extension of Meckelian groove, interconnected network of canals and small cavities in atlas) observable only in this species. P. miocenicus inhabited aquatic environments, which existed under wet climatic conditions with mean annual precipitation higher than 900 mm. The new species expands the temporal range of the genus by at least 30 million years and enlarges the palaeogeographic distribution of the genus into Eastern Europe.
蝾螈科是一类神秘的蝾螈，已知分布于北美洲和欧洲的白垩纪和第三纪。在欧洲，该科仅知两个 Palaeoproteus 属的物种。该属在西欧和中欧的分布有限。本文描述了一种来自奥地利和乌克兰早中新世（11-9 百万年前）的新物种，Palaeoproteus miocenicus，代表了欧洲新近纪蝾螈科的最年轻记录。该新种与古近纪代表种在 12 个特征上存在差异，包括体型较大、Meckelian 沟的前伸延长以及齿骨上齿状突的大小和形状。对新种骨骼的 µCT 扫描显示了仅在该种中可见的新特征（例如 Meckelian 沟的前伸延长、连通的管道网络和寰椎中的小腔）。P. miocenicus 栖息于水生环境中，这些环境存在湿润的气候条件，年平均降水量超过 900 毫米。新种将该属的时间范围至少扩大了 3000 万年，并将该属的古地理分布扩大到东欧。
