Ruemkelia sp.

Rzebik-Kowalska, Barbara & Rekovets, Leonid I., 2016, New data on Eulipotyphla (Insectivora, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene of Ukraine, Palaeontologia Electronica 12 (1), pp. 1-31 : 6

Ruemkelia sp.

Figure 3.2

Material. Verkhnya Krynitsa 2 ( MN 11/ MN 12), fragment of left m2. MNI=1. Catalogue number 29/2/3.

Description. The tooth ( Figure 3.2 ) is damaged with an anterior fragment of its trigonid (paraconid) lacking. The morphology of its preserved part is similar to the complete m2 morphology from the same locality (Verkhnya Krynitsa 2) described as cf. Mygalinia hungarica but it is larger.

Measurements. See Table 2.

Systematic Position and Distribution. As mentioned above the Desmaninae tooth (fragment of m2) is similar to the m2 of cf. Mygalinia hungarica but it is wider and must have been longer. However, it cannot represent the m1 of M. hungarica because its width is too big (1.75 mm). According to Kormos (1913) the width of m1 of M. hungarica equals only 1.40–1.50 mm, n =?. On the other hand the width of the above described tooth is typical of m2 of Ruemkelia . As almost all species of this genus are similar in size, more precise identification of this tooth is impossible.

So far Ruemkelia sp. was cited from three Late Miocene Ukrainian localities (Mikhailovka 1 [MN10], Mikhailovka 2 and Frunzovka 2 [MN11]). Only in one locality (Mikhailovka 1) a second lower molar (m2) was found.

The different species of Ruemkelia were widely distributed in Europe from Spain ( van den Hoek Ostende and Furió, 2005) to Greece ( Doukas, 2005) and the Republic of Moldova ( Rzebik-Kowalska and Lungu, 2009) and dated from the Late Miocene to the early Late Pliocene (MN9– MN16).

Figures

FIGURE 3. 1, cf. Mygalinia hungarica from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2, left m2, occlusal view (c.n. 29/2/2/1); 2, Ruemkelia sp. from Verkhnya Krynitsa 2, fragment of left m2, occlusal view (c.n. 29/2/3/1).