Giant pelobatid fossil larva from the middle Miocene of Bulgaria

Abstract

So far, in Bulgaria several fossils of extinct anuran species have been found, but all seem doubtful. Only two pelobatid remains have been found from the Balkans and the regions - younger species (Late Pleistocene) of the genus Pelobates from Serbia and Miocene Pelobates sp. from Turkey. The fossil in the current study represents a larva of the genus Eopelobates, the first discovery of this genus not only for Bulgaria but for the Balkans as well. This pelobatid larva is gigantic, more than 200 mm in total length. The fossil is found in a diatomitian complex from the middle Miocene.

Fossil snakes of the Penny Creek Local Fauna from Webster County, Nebraska, USA, and the first record of snakes from the Early Clarendonian (12.5-12 Ma) of North America

“…If our identification is correct, the possible Late Pliocene Hambach Eopelobates is, thus, another unexpected late survivor from the site. Available published evidence suggest that Eopelobates went extinct before the beginning of the Pleistocene (but see Roček, 2003, andVergilov andTzankov, 2021, for an older extinction date), which agrees with the fact that Quaternary sites in the area close to Hambach only yielded Pelobates (Böttcher, 1991;Holman, 1998;Sanchiz, 1998;Schouten, 2016;Villa et al, 2018c).…”

“…A situation similar to that of palaeobatrachids arises for pelobatids from Hambach as well. Several pelobatids are reported from the Palaeogene and Neogene of Europe (e.g., Sanchiz, 1998;Roček, 2013;Vergilov and Tzankov, 2021;and reference therein), but only few of them come from the northwestern part of the continent, where Hambach is located. Miocene pelobatids found in the area come from only three localities placed slightly eastward to the latter site: an Aquitanian indeterminate member of the family from Budenheim, near Mainz, mentioned, but neither described nor figured, by Schleich (1988); several Burdigalian remains of Pelobates sanchizi Venczel, 2004 from Echzell (Vasilyan et al, 2022); and a Middle Miocene premetamorphic tadpole from Climbach, near Allendorf, attributed to Eopelobates sp.…”

“…If correctly identified, the Late Pliocene Eopelobates from Hambach 11 and 11C, on the other hand, shares potentially no relations with other pelobatids identified at genus rank in close-by post-Miocene sites. Known congeneric occurrences postdating the Miocene/ Pliocene transition are all located in Eastern Europe (Młynarski 1962;Sanchiz and Młynarski, 1979a;Młynarski and Szyndlar, 1989;Ratnikov, 2001;Venczel, 2001;Roček, 2013;Roček et al, 2014;Vergilov and Tzankov, 2021), even though Rage and Roček (2003), Roček (2013), and Vergilov and Tzankov (2021) recommended caution on these occurrences due to the absence of the most diagnostic cranial elements in the respective material. Nevertheless, only Pelobates is recorded in the western part of the continent in the last 5 Myr.…”