Taxonomy, systematic and paleobiology of the giant mustelids (Mammalia, Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Neogene of Europe, North America and Africa

Abstract

In this PhD thesis we present a taxonomic, systematic and paleobiological study of giantmustelids from the Neogene of Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. The main objectiveis to characterize its morphological and taxonomic diversity through anatomical descriptions,biometric characterizations, and taxonomic and systematic studies of new fossils. For thispurpose, complete descriptions and comparisons have been made with other taxa, such as threedimensionalsurface scans, cladistic studies, and statistical analysis —hierarchical clusteringanalysis, discriminant analysis and linear regression.New material of Megalictis ferox is described. We review the published material ofMegalictis, Aelurocyon and Paroligobunis from the early Miocene of North America (ArikareeanAr3-4). Aelurocyon and Paroligobunis are synonymized with Megalictis. It is argued the existenceof four species within Megalictis: M. frazieri, M. simplicidens, M. ferox and “M”. petersoni. Alsowe propose that the Oligobunines are stem mustelids, which are more related to the livingrepresentatives than to the other musteloids analyzed. A new paleobiological interpretation ofM. ferox is proposed, which represents an ecomorfootype analogous to the extant hyenas, asopposed to the felid-type traditionally related to this species.We recognize the first record of Iberictis buloti in the Iberian Peninsula from theearly Miocene (MN4) of els Casots (Vallès-Penedès Basin). Iberictis emerges as the oldestrepresentative of the Gulonini —Iberictis, Plesiogulo and Gulo— whose origin is now situatedin the early Miocene. Our results show Iberictis represents the sister genus of Plesiogulo (giantform of the late Miocene)...