Are the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae closely related? Contradistinctive conclusions between genetics and palaeontology

The reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae based on the fossil record strongly suggests that these do not share the same murid ancestor and developed separately since the early Oligocene. This conclusion is supported by the difference in evolutionary dynamics between these groups during the Miocene and Pliocene. Molecular genetic studies of extant representatives of the Rhizomyinae, Spalacinae and Myospalacinae, however, suggest that these subfamilies share similarities that distinguish them from all other Muridae. As a result, geneticists unite these subfamilies into the family Spalacidae and consider the Spalacidae and the Muridae to be sister lineages. Until the conflict between the two disciplines is resolved we prefer to maintain the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae as two subfamilies within the family Muridae (superfamily Muroidea)

Vallesian rodents from Sheikh Abdallah, Western Desert, Egypt

International audienceThe aim of this contribution is to describe and interpret the fossil rodents from the Vallesian spelean breccias of the Sheikh Abdallah paleocave system, Western Desert, Egypt. Among the 1239 rodent teeth studied, there are three new genera and five new species. The fauna contains the earliest known murine in the world (four specimens), the earliest recorded hystricid in Africa and Europe (one specimen) and a primitive lophiomyine (15 specimens). The assemblage is dominated by Myocricetodon, of which there are four species comprising more than 1000 specimens, followed by a new genus of gerbilline (80 teeth), Africanomys (30 specimens), two genera of dendromurines (45 specimens), the squirrel Atlantoxerus (two specimens), glirids (five specimens), the gerbil Protatera (three specimens) and an indeterminate murid (two specimens). No lagomorphs were found in samples. New rodent taxa described are Faraframys heissigi, Ameuro