Muscardinus dacicus, Striczky & Pazonyi, 2014
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/10.17111/FragmPalHung.2014.31.51 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CEF41B-FFC9-812B-FDA5-210BEDD3FBCE |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Muscardinus dacicus |
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Muscardinus dacicus Kormos, 1930
1930 Muscardinus dacicus n. sp. – KORMOS, p. 243–244.
1963 Muscardinus aff. dacicus Kormos, 1930 – KOWALSKI, p. 543, fig. 6.
1993 Muscardinus dacicus Kormos, 1930 – DAOUD, p. 214–219, fig. 22.
2000 Muscardinus cf. dacicus Kormos, 1930 – MARCHETTI et al., p. 101, fig. 6/41.
Description – M 1: The tooth is markedly brachyodont, with five ridges. The first mesial ridge (protoloph) is oblique, the second one (posterior centraloph) is longer, sinuous, oblique, and extending along the palatinal side. The first ridge is very wide apart from the second one. The second, fourth (metaloph), and fifth (posteroloph) ridges are joined on palatinal side with the endoloph. The third one (posterior extra ridge) is shorter, and isolated on both sides (morphotype 1), or sinuous, and joined on palatinal side to the endoloph (morphotype 2).
M 2: The tooth is squared, with seven parallel, linear ridges. All ridges are joined on palatinal side with the endoloph. The third ridge (anterior extra ridge) is interrupted in the central part of the tooth. This ridge and the fourth one (anterior centraloph) are joined on labial side. The metacone is absent.
M 1: The tooth is long with six almost parallel main ridges, which are narrow especially in the anterior part. All ridges are isolated from each other. These characters are corresponding with morphotype 8 of recent M. avellanarius .
M 2: The tooth has six enamel ridges. The ridges are slightly arched anteriorly. The first, second, third and fourth ridges are isolated from each other. The fifth and sixth ridges (posterior extra ridge and posterolophid) are joined on lingual side (morphotype 1), or on both sides (morphotype 2).
Remarks – Altogether, 2 M 1, 1 M 2, 6 M 1, and 4 M 2 teeth of M. dacicus were found in the Somssich Hill 2 samples. Our material was compared with an Early Pleistocene dormouse, M. dacicus ( Kormos, 1930) , and recent M. avellanarius (Linnaeus, 1758) . These species are very similar, and László Kordos (March 2013, pers. comm.) suggested, that M. dacicus could plausibly correspond with the extant species. In order to verify this idea, recent M. avellanarius material was also analysed.
Eight morphotypes were determined by M 1 morphology of M. avellanarius , and these ones were compared with M. dacicus specimens from six Early and Middle Pleistocene localities: Betfia 2, 10, 13 ( TERZEA & JURCSÁK 1967; TERZEA 1973), Osztramos 7, Kövesvárad ( JÁNOSSY 1986) ( Fig. 7a, b View Fig ).
On the basis of the fossil material and 50 M 1 of recent M. avellanarius , the middle part of this tooth (between the second and fifth ridges) is steady, while its anterior and posterior parts are very various ( Table 2, Fig. 7 View Fig ).
Morphotype 1: The first and second ridges are isolated, whereas the fifth and sixth ones join on the labial side.
Morphotype 2: All ridges are isolated.
Morphotype 3: The first and second ridges join on the labial side, whereas the fifth and sixth ones isolated.
Morphotype 4: The first and second ridges are isolated, whereas the fifth and sixth ones join on both sides.
Morphotype 5: The first and second ridges join on the lingual side, whereas the fifth and sixth ones join on the labial side.
Morphotype 6: The first and second ridges are isolated, whereas the fifth and sixth ones join on the lingual side.
Morphotype 7: The first and second ridges join on the labial side, and the fifth and sixth ones join on the labial side, too.
Morphotype 8: The first and second ridges join on the labial side, whereas the fifth and sixth ones join on both sides.
All M. dacicus specimens corresponded with some morphotype of M. avellanarius . M. dacicus specimens of Osztramos 7 corresponded with morphotypes 1, 2, 3 ( Fig. 7a View Fig ), all specimens from Betfia localities (2, 10, 13) paralleled with morphotype 6, specimen of Kövesvárad corresponded with morphotype 5, whereas all specimens of Somssich Hill 2 paralleled with morphotype 8. According to these results, morphologically M. dacicus M 1 is very similar to recent M. avellanarius ( Fig. 7b View Fig ). Therefore, it is conceivable that the Early Pleistocene M. dacicus was not a separate species, but a morphotype of the recent M. avellanarius . However, in order to prove this hypothesis, more morphological and metric analysis is required on all teeth of both species.
Within the sequence of the Somssich Hill 2 locality, M. dacicus ( Fig. 8 View Fig ) was less abundant, than Glis sackdillingensis or G. minor . Generally, it appeared with Glis (layers 4, 28–30 and 45), but at layer 15 M. dacicus was the only dormouse.
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