Can Mata indeterminate: Middle Miocene - Late/Upper Miocene, Spain

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia - Testudines - Testudinidae
Testudo (Chersine) catalaunica (Bataller 1926)
Lujan et al. 2016
synonym of Testudo antiqua
IPS30905, IPS87219, Proximal fragments of left femur
Mammalia - Carnivora - Felidae
Machairodus aphanistus (Kaup 1833)
1 specimen
see common names

Geography
Country:Spain
Coordinates: 41.5° North, 1.9° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:41.7° North, 1.0° East
Time
Period:Neogene Epoch:Miocene
Key time interval:Middle Miocene - Late/Upper Miocene
Age range of interval:15.98000 - 5.33300 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy comments: Finally, the exact stratigraphic provenance of the Can Mata material is unknown. The fossiliferous area of Can Mata is located near the town of els Hostalets de Pierola, with its Miocene outcrops recording the Middle to Late Miocene boundary. Traditionally, several loosely defined localities and isolated finds from this area were grouped into Hostalets Inferior (MN7+8) and Hostalets Superior (MN9) (Agustí et al., 1985; Golpe-Posse, 1974). More recently, many strictly defined localities have been recognized in this area, corresponding to the synthetic stratigraphic series of Can Mata (including both Abocador de Can Mata and Ecoparc de Can Mata), which range in age at least from the early MN7+8 to MN9 (Alba et al., 2006, 2011b; Casanovas-Vilar et al., 2011a; Moyà-Solà et al., 2009). Most of the old finds from Can Mata would be probably situated around the locality of Can Mata 1, which is considered to be latest Aragonian (ca. 11.2 Ma; Alba et al., 2011b; Casanovas-Vilar et al., 2011a), thus being either late MN7+8 or early MN9 in age. Therefore, it is likely that this find represents the oldest Vallès-Penedès occurrence of Machairodus, which has not been thus far recovered from the Late Aragonian (MN7+8) localities of the Abocador de Can Mata series (Alba et al., 2011b).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: not reported
Environment:terrestrial indet.
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:general faunal/floral analysis
Taxonomic list comments:The talus from the classical collections of CM (IPS30901) shares several characters with those of P. leo (such as a moderately large neck, and a deep and mediolaterally compressed trochlea). In these features, this taxon differs from Homotherium and Amphimachairodus, which usually display a relatively shorter talar neck, together with a narrow and mediolaterally wide trochlea (Ballesio, 1963; Berta, 1987; Merriam and Stock, 1932; Salesa et al., 2012). The characters displayed by the studied talus therefore agree with the purported less derived morphology of M. aphanistus compared with both Amphimachairodus and Homotherium.
Metadata
Database number:190006
Authorizer:M. Uhen, E. Vlachos Enterer:G. Halstead-Johnson, E. Vlachos
Created:2017-11-26 14:11:40 Last modified:2017-11-26 14:11:40
Access level:the public Released:2017-11-26 14:11:40
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:

63882. J. Madurell-Malapeira, J. M. Robles, I. Casanovas-Vilar, P. Obrado, and D. M. Alba. 2014. The scimitar-toothed cat Machairodus aphanistus (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula). Comptes Rendus Palevol 13(7):569-585 [M. Uhen/G. Halstead-Johnson]

Secondary references:

69991 A. H. Lujan, M. Delfino, J. M. Robles and D. M. Alba. 2016. The Miocene tortoise Testudo catalaunica Bataller, 1926, and a revised phylogeny of extinct species of genus Testudo (Testudines: Testudinidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 1-31 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]