First diatomyid rodent from the Early Miocene of Arabia

Raquel López-Antoñanzas*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Asian family Diatomyidae is known from the Early Oligocene to the present. Among living rodents, this group comprises only the recently discovered Laonastes aenigmamus from Laos. Fossil diatomyids are known from only a few sites, in which they are often rare. The discovery of Pierremus explorator gen. nov. sp. nov. in the Lower Miocene of As-Sarrar (Saudi Arabia) raises to ten the number of extinct diatomyid species recognized. Pierremus explorator is the first record of a diatomyid from the Afro-Arabian plate. This discovery provides evidence that, together with other rodents (ctenodactylids, zapodids...), the diatomyids took advantage of the corridor that was established between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia in Early Miocene times.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)117-123
Number of pages7
JournalNaturwissenschaften
Volume98
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2011

Keywords

  • Arabia
  • Dam Formation
  • Diatomyidae
  • Miocene
  • Paleobiogeography
  • Saudi

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