Bollettino SPI: PUBLISHED ONLINE - Marzo 2021

The late Miocene ictitheres of Greece have been recognised since the beginning of the 19th Century and include several species. The small-sized Plioviverrops and Protictitherium are well-known, but those of middle-size, Ictitherium, Hyaenictitherium and Lycyaena are poorly understood. The aim of this article is to study a significant sample of material of the middle-sized taxa from Greece in order to summarise their morphological characters, providing new measurements and an updated photographic documentation. The studied material originating from several localities is dated as being from early Vallesian to late Turolian in age. Three confirmed middle-sized species are described herein, Ictitherium viverrinum, Hyaenictitherium wongii and Lycyaena chaeretis, as well as another questionable species referred to as cf. Ictitherium pannonicum. The overall stratigraphic distribution of Greek ictitheres ranges from the middle to the late Miocene. The earliest occurrence is recorded from the early/middle Miocene (MN 4/5) locality Antonios with the species Protictitherium gaillardi and Protictitherium cf. crassum. The latter species is certainly recognised in the Vallesian and Turolian of Greece and disappeared at the end of the Miocene. Plioviverrops orbignyi is well known from the Turolian (MN 11-13). Ictitherium viverrinum occurs in the early-middle Turolian (MN 11-12) and possibly late Turolian (MN 13). Hyaenictitherium wongii has a longer chronologic distribution being recognised from the late Vallesian to the middle Turolian (MN 10-12). Finally, L. chaeretis is documented from the middle Turolian (MN 12).

Arthropleura armata Jordan, 1854 (Myriapoda) is herein described for the first time from Sardinia (Italy). The sample, represented by a large isolated fragment of a paratergite, was collected in the fluvio-lacustrine sequence of the Upper Pennsylvanian San Giorgio formation (Iglesias, southwestern Sardinia). To date, the Sardinian find represents the southernmost report of this taxon in Europe and is unique in the Italian record. Arthropleura represents a classical taxon of the Euro-American palaeo-equatorial biota that lived in rainforest habitats in late Westphalian times (i.e., late Moscovian of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart).

Among the fossils coming from the Contrada Monticelli site (Castellana Grotte, BA), preserved at the Museum of Earth Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, some cervid fossil remains have been studied. The site was discovered during the 1970s, but the fossil material was never studied, except in a few cases, which do not include the cervid remains: in fact they have never been previously studied or classified. Although the scarcity of the sample and the lack of antler remains suggest caution, a morphological analysis has allowed us to recognise the presence of a large Middle Pleistocene fallow deer, here provisionally classified as Dama cf. roberti Breda & Lister, 2013. The presence of D. cf. roberti in the Contrada Monticelli site would represent the southernmost presence of this species in Europe, and its occurrence is consistent with the biochronological attribution of Contrada Monticelli site to the Isernia Faunal Unit.