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Early Pleistocene Spiral-Horned Antelopes (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) from the Taurida Cave (Crimea, Russia)

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Abstract

The article describes fossil remains of two spiral-horned antelope species Gazellospira torticornis (Aymard, 1854) and Pontoceros ambiguus Vereschagin, Alexejeva, David et Baigusheva, 1971 which were found in 2018 in the Lower Pleistocene sediments of the Taurida Cave in Central Crimea. These finds are the first evidence of the occurrence of these taxa on the Crimean Peninsula. This association is correlated with the Late Villafranchian faunas of Europe and the mammal zone MNQ18 (within the time interval 1.8–1.5 Ma). Fossils of G. torticornis from the Taurida Cave confirm the tendency towards a reduction in size among the late representatives of this antelope species. P. ambiguus from the Taurida Cave is one of the earliest representatives of the species in the south of Europe. Finds of spiral-horned antelopes in the Taurida Cave help elucidate the details of their morphological evolution, refine their geographic and stratigraphic range.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank all those who participated in the excavation of the Taurida locality.

Funding

The study was partially funded under the Fundamental Research Program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Evolution of the organic world. The role and influence of planetary processes,” and also under the Russian Foundation for Basic Research project no. 19-05-00982 and as part of the government assignment to the Southern Research Center of Russian Academy of Sciences for 2019, project no. 01201363186.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia

    I. A. Vislobokova, A. V. Lavrov & K. K. Tarasenko

  2. Southern Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 344006, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

    V. V. Titov

  3. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 620144, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    D. O. Gimranov

  4. Ural Federal University, 620002, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    D. O. Gimranov

  5. Vernadsky Federal University of Crimea, 295007, Simferopol, Russia

    D. B. Startsev

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  1. I. A. Vislobokova
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  2. V. V. Titov
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  4. D. O. Gimranov
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Vislobokova, I.A., Titov, V.V., Lavrov, A.V. et al. Early Pleistocene Spiral-Horned Antelopes (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) from the Taurida Cave (Crimea, Russia). Paleontol. J. 54, 81–90 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030120010116

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