The genus Hispanomeryx (Mammalia, Ruminantia, Moschidae) and its bearing on musk deer phylogeny and systematics

Abstract

We update the systematics and comparative anatomy of the genus Hispanomeryx Morales, Moyà-Solà and Soria, 1981 through the description of a new and abundant fossil material from the middle Miocene localities of Toril-3, Manchones-1 and Manchones-2, Zaragoza Province, Spain. Hispanomeryx was only known by dental remains, mainly mandibles and lower teeth, and very scarce postcranial material; the fossil sample studied here includes cranial, mandibular, dental and postcranial remains, and it allows us to describe in depth, for the first time, the anatomy of the genus. We also erect the new species Hispanomeryx daamsi. The material is good and abundant enough as to include Hispanomeryx in a cladistic analysis performed to explore its phylogenetic relationships within the Pecora. This analysis includes Hispanomeryx in a monophyletic Moschidae (musk deer) composed by Micromeryx, Hispanomeryx, 'Moschus' grandeavus and extant Moschus, and recovers a clade composed by moschids and bovids; this is the first time that a Moschidae-Bovidae sister-group relationship is backed-up by morphological data. A direct sistergroup relationship between Hispanomeryx and the Bovidae is thus rejected. Several taxa previously assigned to the 'Moschidae' are rejected as true moschids. Finally, the cladistic phylogenetic analysis of Hispanomeryx demonstrates its monophyly and shows a basal species, H. aragonensis Azanza, 1986, and a clade formed by H. duriensis Morales et al., 1981 and H. daamsi sp. nov, characterized by the presence of more derived lower molars than those of H. aragonensis.

Palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment of the Aquitanian locality Ulm-Westtangente (MN2, Lower Freshwater Molasse, Germany)

“…The latter are put into a ''family indet.'' category rather than in the usual family Moschidae, since no relevant morphological characteristics really confirm this assignment (Sánchez et al 2010). Carnivores are represented by at least 13 species in 5 families ( Fig.…”

Diversity of Moschidae (Ruminantia, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) in the Middle Miocene of China

“…They have been considered to be the sister group of Cervidae, Cervidae + Antilocapridae, Cervidae + Bovidae, Bovidae, or all other pecorans (Janis and Scott, 1987;Hernández-Fernández and Vrba, 2005;Vislobokova and Lavrov, 2009;Prikhod'ko and Zvychainaya, 2011). However, recent studies have confirmed Moschidae as the sister group of Bovidae, based on both morphological and molecular methods (Hassanin and Douzery, 2003;Sánchez et al, 2009Sánchez et al, , 2010.…”

“…In Mongolia, the most ancient Pecora date from the early Oligocene (Vislobokova, 1997;Vislobokova and Daxner-Höck, 2002). Most of these have been tentatively included in the Moschidae (Prothero, 2007); however, recently these attributions have been debated, many researchers have excluded them from Moschidae (Vislobokova, 2007;Vislobokova and Lavrov, 2009;Sánchez et al, 2010;Costeur, 2011), and only two Miocene genera, Micromeryx and Hispanomeryx, are generally regarded as belonging to Moschidae. They share cranial, dental, and postcranial synapomorphies with the extant Moschus.…”

“…The postentocristids of the molars are well developed, and enclose the posterior ends. The m3 has a bicuspidate third lobe with a well developed postentoconulidcristid (Sánchez et al, 2010). Within the family, Hispanomeryx differs from Micromeryx in the reduction of the lower premolar tooth row and in an inclination to hypsodonty, with relatively reduced labial and lingual structures (Sánchez et al, 2010).…”

“…The m3 has a bicuspidate third lobe with a well developed postentoconulidcristid (Sánchez et al, 2010). Within the family, Hispanomeryx differs from Micromeryx in the reduction of the lower premolar tooth row and in an inclination to hypsodonty, with relatively reduced labial and lingual structures (Sánchez et al, 2010). Therefore, in Hispanomeryx, the labial side of an upper tooth and the lingual side of a lower tooth show more slender ribs and styles or stylids with a columnar Shiqi Wang et al 144 rather than a pyramidal outline (Sánchez et al, 2009).…”