Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis, Solé & Mennecart, 2019

Solé, Floréal & Mennecart, Bastien, 2019, A large hyaenodont from the Lutetian of Switzerland expands the body mass range of the European mammalian predators during the Eocene, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64 (2), pp. 275-290 : 280-281

Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis sp. nov.

1970 Prodissopsalis sp. ; Calas 1970: 226.

1972 Prodissopsalis eocaenicus ; Lange-Badré 1972: 2216, fig. 2B,C. 1990 Prodissopsalis eocoenicus ; Lange-Badré and Haubold 1990: 615.

Material.—UCBL-FSL 2113, left p3; UCBL-FSL 2114, right p4; both from Lissieu, France; MP 14, Lutetian, Eocene.

Description.—See Lange-Badré (1972).

Remarks.—Like Egerkingen, Lissieu yielded a diverse vertebrate fauna. When first mentioned, the premolars from Lissieu, here referred as Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis , were referred to Oxyaenoides schlosseri (formerly described as Hyaenodon schlosseri ). However, Lange-Badré (1972) decided the premolars better fit with the premolars of Prodissopsalis ; however, she remarked that they differ by being transversally elongated compared with the premolars of Prodissopsalis eocaenicus . Callas (1970) revised the fauna from Lissieu and listed the presence of a taxon that is similar in size to Prodissopsalis eocaenicus but morphologically distinct, we think that this taxon corresponds to the premolars here discussed.

We plotted their sizes (provided by Lange-Badré 1972: table 1) on Fig. 4 . As one can see, the ratios width/length measured for the fossils of Lissieu are closer to those of Cartierodon egerkingensis than to those of Prodissopsalis eocaenicus . It is worth noting that the ratios indicate that the premolars of Cartierodon egerkingensis and Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis are more square-shaped than those of Prodissopsalis eocaenicus . We thus believe that the unique features of the premolars from Lissieu noted by Calas (1970) and Lange-Badré (1972) are due to the fact that the fossils from Lissieu belong to Cartierodon . However, we prefer to leave the specimens in open nomenclature ( Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis ), pending the discovery of better-preserved material.

The presence of similar species between Lissieu and Egerkingen is not surprising because Egerkingen α + β and Lissieu are referred to MP 14 (BiochroM’97 1997). Moreover, these two localities are separated by 350 km. Recently, Angst et al. (2013) identified the terrestrial carnivorous bird phorusrhacid Eleutherornis cotei in Egerkingen α and Lissieu. However, it is worth keeping in mind that the presence of Cartierodon egerkingensis in Egerkingen α or β is uncertain. Cartierodon is certainly known from Egerkingen γ.

Figures

Fig. 4. Comparison of the ratio width/length estimated for the lower premolars of Paenoxyaenoides liguritor from late Eocene of France, Quercy Phosphorites (based on Lange-Badré 1979: table 10), Prodissopsalis eocaenicus from Eocene of Switzerland, Geiseltal-Obere Mittelkohle (MP12) and Geiseltal-Untere Mittelkohle (MP13) (based on Lange-Badré and Haubold 1990: table 3); Cartierodon egerkingensis gen. et sp. nov. from Eocene of Switzerland, Egerkingen γ (MP13?); and Cartierodon cf. egerkingensis from Eocene of France, Lissieu (MP14) (based on Lange-Badré 1972: table 1).