论文标题：First levantine fossil murines shed new light on the earliest intercontinental dispersal of mice
期刊：Scientific Reports
作者：Raquel López-Antoñanzas,Sabrina Renaud,Pablo Peláez-Campomanes,Dany Azar,George Kachacha,Fabien Knoll
发表时间：2019/08/29
数字识别码：10.1038/s41598-019-47894-y
微信链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cyKiToEpogK75j8lLHRPUw
研究人员从黎巴嫩发现的化石中鉴定出了一个史前鼠科新种，鼠科动物是包括小鼠、大鼠和它们的近缘属种在内的一类哺乳动物。这一发现发表在本周的《科学报告》的First levantine fossil murines shed new light on the earliest intercontinental dispersal of mice上，代表了鼠科动物最早从亚洲向非洲扩散时途经黎凡特的首个已知物证。
图1: Progonomys manolo新种的上颊牙的咬合视图 图源：López-Antoñanzas等
鼠亚科是最大的哺乳动物亚科，被认为起源于1600万年前的南亚。不过，鼠科动物首次扩散的可能路径和时间一直不甚明了。
西班牙马德里国家自然科学博物馆的Raquel López-Antoñanzas和同事分析了黎巴嫩2013年和2018年发掘的牙齿化石。经鉴定，这些化石属于一个之前未发现的新种，研究人员将其命名为Progonomys manolo。从形态特征上看，P. manolo与Progonomys属最古老的种群（生活在约1050-1100万年前）较为相似，说明P. manolo是Progonomys属的一个原始种，而Progonomys属是最早从鼠类起源地南亚向外扩散的鼠科动物。
作者认为，考虑到黎巴嫩离非洲大陆并不远，P. manolo可能促进了Progonomys属较晚种群在非洲的定居。
牙齿分析显示，Progonomys属很多种的牙齿都在演化过程中发生过改变。较晚的种臼齿更宽，这说明它们的食性经历了从杂食性向植食性的转变，而这种转变与温暖潮湿的中中新世向逐渐干燥的晚中新世的过渡有关。
作为阿拉伯半岛发现的首个Progonomys属化石记录，研究结果突显出“黎凡特走廊”作为欧亚大陆与非洲间十字路口的重要性，也为鼠亚科的最早洲际扩散补充了更多细节信息。
摘要：Recent extensive field prospecting conducted in the Upper Miocene of Lebanon resulted in the discovery of several new fossiliferous localities. One of these, situated in the Zahleh area (Bekaa Valley, central Lebanon) has yielded a particularly diverse vertebrate fauna. Micromammals constitute an important part of this assemblage because not only do they represent the first Neogene rodents and insectivores from Lebanon, but they are also the only ones from the early Late Miocene of the Arabian Peninsula and circumambient areas. Analyses of the murines from Zahleh reveal that they belong to a small-sized early Progonomys, which cannot be assigned to any of the species of the genus hitherto described. They are, thereby, shown to represent a new species: Progonomys manolo. Morphometric analyses of the outline of the first upper molars of this species suggest a generalist and omnivorous diet. This record sheds new light onto a major phenomenon in the evolutionary history of rodents, which is the earliest dispersal of mice. It suggests that the arrival of murines in Africa got under way through the Levant rather than viasouthern Europe and was monitored by the ecological requirements of Progonomys.
（来源：科学网）
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