A succession of Miocene rodent assemblages from fissure fillings in southern France: palaeoenvironmental interpretation and comparison with Spain

An Early to Late Miocene sequence of rodent assemblages from southern France has been quantitatively studied. The resulting pattern seems very similar to a contemporary sequence from central Spain (Calatayud-Teruel Basin). The fossil mammal-bearing localities are of different types: mainly karst infills in France and localities situated in sedimentary basins in Spain. In order to interpret the fossil record, a comparison has been made between southern France faunas of similar age but collected in karst infills and in basin deposits. There seems to be no difference between the two kinds of faunas and thus there is no indication that karst infills systematically give a picture of drier and more open environments. Both types of localities may give a similar relative abundance of taxa and when differences exist they can be attributed to local conditions. The comparison between southern France and the Calatayud-Teruel Basin (central Spain) shows that: (1) similar trends occurred in the two areas; (2) differences between spectra were more important during the late Early Miocene than during the Middle Miocene; (3) the shift between the late Early Miocene and the Middle Miocene environments in southern France does not seem to be correlated with. a general drop in temperatures as inferred from the analysis of central Spain faunas. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.