Paleoworld magazine has just publish an article This report details a paleontological excavation carried out in Granada by an international team, in which the remains of a small mammal from the Tenrecidae family (African otter shrew) dating back approximately 3.6 million years have been discovered. The find is unusual because these animals have primarily evolved in Africa, so it could be what researchers call a 'tourist taxon': species that live in one place and appear briefly in another, as is also the case with gerbils, which are also found in Europe but are of African origin.
The article is led by Vicente D. Crespo, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Geobiotech) and Museu da Lourinhã (Portugal), and paleontological researchers from the Department of Animal Biology, Soil Science and Geology of the University of La Laguna have participated in it. Penelope Cruzado Caballero y Carolina Castillo Ruiz. The site where this excavation has taken place is called Moreda, because it is close to that town in the Sierra de Harana in the Betic Cordillera.
The fossil was found in sediment within a cave formed by the dissolution of the surrounding rock, where it accumulated alongside other remains of small vertebrates. After excavating these sediments and washing them to remove excess clay and concentrate the fossils, the process of sorting (separating the fossils from the sediment with tweezers and a great deal of patience) was carried out for later study. Among the fossils recovered, a small tooth caught the paleontologists' attention.
This tooth is approximately 2 millimeters in size and has a shape characteristic of a small family of mammals called tenrecs, particularly within this family, the potamogalines or African otter shrews, which belong to the order Afrosoricidae. These animals, characterized by their small size and elongated, pointed snouts, currently comprise about thirty species that live primarily in Madagascar, with only three species living in sub-Saharan Africa: the potamogalines. These extant species have a semi-aquatic lifestyle and are predators of fish and crabs.
This paper describes the new species named Europotamogale melkarti It is hypothesized that their ancestors may have migrated to North Africa from West Africa during the humid Zeit phase (7.5–4.6 million years ago), which occurred between the Late Miocene and the Early Pliocene and was characterized by a wetter climate than those recorded before or after. This period saw the development of the now-extinct Sahabi river system. At this time, the Niger River also flowed into the Mediterranean, and there were large lakes called Lake Cyrenaica and Lake Chad, where the country of the same name is located today.
All these waterways may have facilitated the migration of the ancestors of Europotamogale melkarti From Central Africa to the Mediterranean basin. During the Late Miocene, and before the Messinian Salinity Crisis, Europe and Africa were separated by a sea arm that ran from Alicante to Huelva, but during the aforementioned Crisis, that sea arm closed, and since the Strait of Gibraltar was not yet open, the Mediterranean partially dried up, facilitating the migration of fauna between both continents.
Later, at the beginning of the Pliocene, the present-day Strait of Gibraltar formed, refilling the Mediterranean Sea. This event may have contributed to the fact that by the middle of the Pliocene Europotamogale It lived in an Andalusia where there would have been watercourses. Hence the possibility that this mammal of African origin, which surely lived for a very short time in Europe (since it has not been found in other sites), could be one of the aforementioned tourist taxa.
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