Abstract
The Miocene sands of the Swiss Jura Mountains, long exploited in quarries for the construction industry, have yielded abundant fossil remains of large mammals. Among Deinotheriidae (Proboscidea), two species, Prodeinotherium bavaricum and Deinotherium giganteum, had previously been identified in the Delémont valley, but never described. A third species, Deinotherium levius, from the locality of Charmoille in Ajoie, is reported herein for the first time in Switzerland. These occurrences are dated from the middle to the late Miocene, correlating to the European Mammal biozones MN5 to MN9. The study is completed by a discussion on the palaeobiogeography of deinotheres at the European scale.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
This manuscript was peer-reviewed by PCI-Paleo DOI:10.24072/pci.paleo.100008
Abbreviations
- APD
- anteroposterior diameter
- D
- deciduous upper premolar
- dex
- right
- H
- height
- i
- lower incisors
- L
- length
- m/M
- lower and upper molars
- MJSN
- Jurassica Museum (formerly Musée jurassien des Sciences naturelles)
- MN
- Mammal Neogene
- NMB
- Naturhistorisches Museum Basel
- NMBE
- Naturhistorisches Museum Bern
- p/P
- lower and upper premolars
- sin
- left
- TD
- transverse diameter
- W
- width.
