Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vislobokova, I. A
• Titov, V. V
• Lavrov, A. V
• Gimranov, D. O
• Startsev, D. B
• Tarasenko, K. K

Titel

Early Pleistocene Spiral-Horned Antelopes

Ist Teil von

• Paleontological journal, 2020-01, Vol.54 (1), p.81

Ort / Verlag

Springer

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

SpringerNature Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The article describes fossil remains of two spiral-horned antelope species Gazellospira torticornis (Aymard, 1854) and Pontoceros ambiguus Vereschagin, Alexejeva, David et Baigusheva, 1971 which were found in 2018 in the Lower Pleistocene sediments of the Taurida Cave in Central Crimea. These finds are the first evidence of the occurrence of these taxa on the Crimean Peninsula. This association is correlated with the Late Villafranchian faunas of Europe and the mammal zone MNQ18 (within the time interval 1.8-1.5 Ma). Fossils of G. torticornis from the Taurida Cave confirm the tendency towards a reduction in size among the late representatives of this antelope species. P. ambiguus from the Taurida Cave is one of the earliest representatives of the species in the south of Europe. Finds of spiral-horned antelopes in the Taurida Cave help elucidate the details of their morphological evolution, refine their geographic and stratigraphic range.