A New Pliocene Capybara (Rodentia,Caviidae) from Northern South America (Guajira,Colombia), and its Implications for the Great American Biotic Interchange

One of the most striking components of the modern assemblage of South American mammals is the semiaquatic capybara (Caviidae, Hydrochoerinae), the biggest rodent in the world. The large hydrochoerines are recorded from the middle Miocene to the present, mainly in high latitudes of South America. Although less known, they are also recorded in low latitudes of South America, and in Central and North America. We report the first record of capybaras from the late Pliocene of Colombia, found in deposits of the Ware Formation, Guajira Peninsula in northeastern Colombia. We analyze the phylogenetic position within Caviidae, the possible environmental changes in the Guajira Peninsula, and the implications of this finding for the understanding of the Great American Biotic Interchange. The morphological and phylogenetic analyses indicate that the hydrochoerine of the Guajira Peninsula is a new species, ?Hydrochoeropsis wayuu, and this genus is most closely related to Phugatherium. According to the latest phylogenetic results, this clade is the sister group of the lineage of the recent capybaras (Neochoerus and Hydrochoerus). ?Hydrochoeropsis wayuu is the northernmost South American Pliocene hydrochoerine record and the nearest to the Panamanian bridge. The presence of this hydrochoerine, together with the fluvio-deltaic environment of the Ware Formation, suggests that during the late Pliocene, the environment that dominated the Guajira Peninsula was more humid and with permanent water bodies, in contrast with its modern desert habitats.     

The most ancient caviine rodent (Hystricognathi,Cavioidea) comes from the late Miocene of Northwest Argentina (South America)

The family Caviidae is one of the most diverse groups among South American hystricognath rodents and is represented by three main living lineages: Caviinae (cavies), Dolichotinae (maras) and Hydrochoerinae (capybaras). Caviinae includes the smaller forms of caviids represented by the extant Microcavia, Cavia and Galea. They are distributed in a wide range of environments throughout South America. In addition, three other genera from the late Miocene–Pliocene (Dolicavia, Palaeocavia and Neocavia) are recognised in high latitudes. In northwestern Argentina, the fossil forms of Caviinae have been poorly studied and for most of them there is no precise stratigraphic information. We describe and evaluate the phylogenetic affinities of the most ancient caviine from the Chiquimil Formation, Catamarca province, northwestern Argentina (9.14–7.14 ma). According to the morphological analysis of the mandibular and dental morphology and the results of the phylogenetic analysis, we assigned the new species tentatively to genus Palaeocavia. The phylogenetic position of the new species suggests an earlier origin for the lineage Palaeocavia + Cavia and for the entire clade Caviinae.     

Mammalian predator–prey relationships and reoccupation of burrows in the Pliocene of the Pampean Region (Argentina): new ichnological and taphonomic evidence

Here we describe an unusual fossil assemblage found inside a crotovine from the late Pliocene Chapadmalal ‘Formation’ (Buenos Aires Province). This assemblage contains the greatest vertebrate diversity recovered inside an ichnofossil of this type, including skeletal remains of dasypodids, didelphids, procyonids, anurans and caviomorph rodents within coprolites and disaggregated scatological waste. We describe four general size types for crotovines and palaeoburrows found in the Pliocene to Holocene of Argentina and Brazil, of which the structure found corresponds to the ‘mid-large’ size type and is linked to the activity of the large dasypodid Ringueletia simpsoni. The scatological remains are assigned to a small-sized carnivorous mammal with a body mass of between 1 and 6 kg. Within the guild of Chapadmalalan omnivorous–carnivorous mammals, this inferred mass range is restricted to large didelphids and mid-sized procyonids (represented in the assemblage by Thylophorops chapadmalensis and Cyonasua lutaria, respectively). The data gathered here confirms that the reoccupation of burrows is a common behaviour in small-sized carnivorous mammals at least since the early Pliocene. In addition, we suggest a predator–prey relationship between the studied carnivores and the most abundant small fossorial mammals of the Pampean Pliocene.     

Studies in Neotropical paleobotany. XIV. A palynoflora from the Middle Eocene Saramaguacan Formation of Cuba

An assemblage of 46 fossil pollen and spore types is described from a core drilled through the middle Eocene Saramaguacán Formation, Camagüey Province, eastern Cuba. Many of the specimens represent unidentified or extinct taxa but several can be identified to family (Palmae, Bombacaceae, Gramineae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae) and some to genus (Pteris, Crudia, Lymingtonia?). The paleoclimate was warm-temperate to subtropical which is consistent with other floras in the region of comparable age and with the global paleotemperature curve. Older plate tectonic models show a variety of locations for proto-Cuba during Late Cretaceous and later times, including along the norther coast of South America. More recent models depict western and central Cuba as two separate parts until the Eocene, and eastern Cuba (joined to northern Hispaniola) docking to central Cuba also in the Eocene. All fragments are part of the North American Plate and none were directly connected with northern South America in late Mesozoic or Cenozoic time. The Saramaguacán flora supports this model because the assemblage is distinctly North American in affinities, with only one type (Retimonocolpites type 1) found elsewhere only in South America.     

First report of rodents from the late Hemphillian (late Miocene) Zwiebel Channel and a revised late Neogene biostratigraphy/biochronology of the Sand Draw area of Nebraska

A new late Hemphillian (late Miocene) rodent assemblage is reported from Zwiebel Channel, a channel cut into underlying Ash Hollow Miocene sediments along Sand Draw, Brown County, Nebraska. This locality extends the temporal range of rodent history in the Sand Draw area. A new biostratigraphic hypothesis proposes that previously described assemblages with Ogmodontomys are older than those with Ophiomys, as is the case in the Meade Basin of southwestern Kansas. Consequently, two Pliocene temporal zones are recognised. Based on a phylogenetic analysis of Ophiomys, rodent biostratigraphy, and paleomagnetic profiles, Sand Draw assemblages with Ogmodontomys are considered to have been deposited about 3.0–2.8 Ma, while those with Ophiomys were laid down between about 2.8–2.5 Ma. The 1.6 Ma date previously suggested for Ophiomys parvus from Froman Ferry, Idaho is probably too young; it is more likely that O. parvus became extinct in Idaho prior to the North American Microtus immigration event at about 2.0 Ma, inhabiting the Snake River basin until around 2.2 Ma.     

Global biostratigraphic comparison and correlation of an early Cisuralian palynoflora from Bolivia

This paper presents new data about Early Permian (Cisuralian) strata, palynostratigraphy and absolute dating from the Copacabana Formation in central Bolivia. Recent stratigraphic and palynologic data from marine and transitional rocks at Apillapampa refine the age of Cisuralian palynomorphs in South America. Twelve samples interbedded with five volcanic ashes (processed and productive) yielded 94 palynomorph species arranged in two informal palynoassemblages: the lower assemblage Vittatina costabilis corresponds to one sample near the base of the Copacabana Formation and the upper Lueckisporites virkkiae assemblage occurs in overlying marine and coal-bearing transitional intervals. Ages were also independently refined by a modern review of conodonts, fusulinids, along with those U–Pb radiometric ages (Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry [ID-TIMS] of zircon-bearing interbedded tuffs). These data suggest that the lower marine member of the Copacabana Formation at this location is Asselian and Sakmarian. Lueckisporites virkkiae is a key species of palynomorph utilised in South American and global Permian biostratigraphic reconstructions. Hence, a thorough global comparison of these palynofloras and correlations is addressed in this contribution, considering first appearances of mainly cosmopolitan diagnostic taxa. Correlations are established with many similar Permian palynofloras, some also constrained with radiometric data, in South America (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) and elsewhere.     

A New Glyptodont (Xenarthra: Cingulata) from the Late Miocene of Argentina: New Clues About the Oldest Extra-Patagonian Radiation in Southern South America

Glyptodonts (Xenarthra, Cingulata) are one of the most amazing Cenozoic South American mammals, with some terminal forms reaching ca. two tons. The Paleogene record of glyptodonts is still poorly known, although some of their diversification is observable in Patagonian Argentina. Since the early and middle Miocene (ca. 19–13 Ma), two large clades can be recognized in South America. One probably has a northern origin (Glyptodontinae), while the other one, called the “austral clade”, is interpreted to have had an austral origin, with the oldest records represented by the “Propalaehoplophorinae” from the late early Miocene of Patagonian Argentina. In this scenario, the extra-Patagonian radiations are still poorly known, despite their importance for understanding the late Miocene and Pliocene diversity. Here, we carry out a comprehensive revision of late Miocene (Chasicoan Stage/Age) glyptodonts of central Argentina (Buenos Aires and San Juan provinces). Our results show that, contrary to what is traditionally assumed, it was a period of very low diversity, with only one species recognized in this region, Kelenkura castroi gen et sp. nov. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that this species represents the sister taxon of the remaining species of the “austral clade”, representing the first branch of the extra-Patagonian radiation. Additionally, K. castroi is the first taxon showing a “fully modern” morphology of the caudal tube.

     

Mandibular remains of Procardiomys martinoi Pascual, 1961 (Hystricognathi,Cavioidea) from the Arroyo Chasicó Formation (early late Miocene) of Argentina: anatomy and the phylogenetic position of the genus within Caviidae

Hydrochoerinae is a clade of caviomorph rodents broadly distributed in South America, which includes the maximum body size recorded among extant rodent taxa. The most basal forms of this group are an assemblage of small to medium body size extinct taxa with a plesiomorphic dentition, traditionally clustered in the group cardiomyines. One of the oldest known cardiomyine is Procardiomys martinoi (Chasicoan South American Land Mammal Age SALMA; early late Miocene), which was known only from the holotype, a fragmentary palate with the left and right molar series. New mandibular remains from the Arroyo Chasicó Formation (Chasicoan SALMA) are described and identified here as belonging to P. martinoi because they share a unique combination of characters (as well matching in size) with the upper dentition of the holotype. These materials help in critically reviewing the taxonomic identification of the mandibular remains previously assigned to Procardiomys and allow testing the phylogenetic affinities of this taxon within Caviidae. P. martinoi is depicted as one of the most basal forms of Hydrochoerinae, placed basally on the lineage leading to extant capybaras after the split between the common ancestor of Kerodon and Hydrochoerus.

http://zoobank.org/F60356E0-CB8E-48C2-BF86-429E347A9579     

The oldest Ordovician foraminifers (Oepikodus evae conodont Zone, Floian) from South America

The oldest occurrences of the monothalamous foraminifer species Amphitremoida longa Nestell and Tolmacheva and A. laevis Nestell and Tolmacheva are found in the San Juan Formation together with conodonts of the Oepikodus evae Zone of the Floian (Lower Ordovician), in the Salagasta 2 section, southern Precordillera, Argentina. These discoveries represent the oldest record for foraminifers in South America. The foraminifers, species of which were originally described from the Lower Ordovician of northwestern Russia, are found in shallow high energy carbonate platform deposits in the Precordillera, together with a North Atlantic province conodont fauna. The carbonate sequence of the San Juan Formation in the Salagasta region is interpreted as a succession ranging from shallower tidal deposits to carbonate crinoidal shoaling bar deposits.     

First description of milk teeth of fossil South American procyonid from the lower Chapadmalalan (Late Miocene–Early Pliocene) of “Farola Monte Hermoso,” Argentina: paleoecological considerations

The first record of milk teeth of South American fossil procyonids comes from the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene at “Farola Monte Hermoso,” Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Five extant genera of Procyonidae inhabit South America (Bassaricyon Allen, Nasuella Hollister, Potos Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, Procyon Storr, and Nasua Storr). Of these only Procyon and Nasua are present in the fossil record (Late Pleistocene–Holocene), in several localities in Brazil, Uruguay, and Bolivia. In addition, six other fossil genera were named, but only two are considered valid: Cyonasua and Chapadmalania. Thus, Cyonasua encompasses ten formally named species and Chapadmalania two. The new specimen, MLP 09-X-5-1, is assigned to cf. Cyonasua. In addition, anatomical evidence implies a much more carnivorous diet in Late Miocene–Early Pleistocene procyonids than that of extant South American taxa. Finally, I examine and discuss the “competitive displacement” hypothesis regarding the extinction of native marsupial carnivores after the arrival of immigrant placental carnivores in South America.     

New notharctine primate fossils from the early Eocene of New Mexico and southern Wyoming and the phylogeny of Notharctinae

Previously undescribed notharctine primate fossils are reported from the early Eocene San Jose Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and the early Eocene Wasatch Formation, southern Wyoming. These collections include the most complete specimens yet discovered of the poorly known species Copelemur tutus and Copelemur praetutus; the first upper dentitions of Cantius angulatus and Cantius frugivorus from the type area of these taxa; and fossils attributable to two new notharctine species, Copelemur australotutus and Smilodectes gingerichi. These new fossils reveal that current ideas concerning notharctine phylogeny are incorrect. Two major, monophyletic clades are apparent within the subfamily: the tribe Copelemurini, consisting of the genera Copelemur and Smilodectes, and the tribe Notharctini, comprising the genera Cantius, Pelycodus, and Notharctus. Analysis of the paleobiogeographic distribution of the Copelemurini indicates that this clade was limited to more southerly regions of western North America during early Eocene time. Northward migration of more tropical habitats during the late Wasatchian and early Bridgerian in western North America, associated with an overall climatic warming trend through the early and middle Eocene, appears to have allowed several mammalian taxa, including Smilodectes, to extend their ranges northward during this time interval. Such taxa thus possess diachronous distributions and have been partly responsible for the long-standing confusion regarding the biostratigraphic correlation of early Eocene faunas from New Mexico with those from Wyoming. Based on several taxa which are also known from the Wasatchian of Wyoming, the age of the San Jose Formation appears to be middle Wasatchian.     

Biostratigraphic and paleoclimatic significance of a new Pliocene foraminiferal fauna from the central Arctic Ocean

A Pliocene benthic foraminiferal fauna containing a previously unknown species association was found in the basal section of a piston core collected from the crest of Northwind Ridge (NWR) in the central Arctic Ocean. The fauna is dominated by Epistominella exigua, Cassidulina reniforme, Eponides tumidulus, Cibicides scaldisiensis, Lagena spp., Cassidulina teretis, Eponides weddellensis, Bolivina arctica, and Patellina corrugata. The presence of Cibicides scaldisiensis in the assemblage and the occurrence of Cibicides grossus higher in the core are indicative of an early Pliocene age. The morphologically distinctive species Cibicidoides sp. 795 of McNeil (in press) which occurs in the NWR core sample was previously known only from Oligocene through Miocene deposits in the Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin of Arctic Canada. Ehrenbergina sp. A and Cibicidoides aff. C. sp. 795, also present in the core, are new and endemic to the Arctic late Miocene and early Pliocene. These species, and possibly others, are survivors of the late Miocene (Messinian) sea-level crisis, which caused a significant faunal turnover in the Arctic Ocean. The predominantly calcareous assemblage indicates deposition above the calcium carbonate compensation depth in an upper bathyal environment. Paleogeographic affinities for the bulk of the assemblage indicate probable connections between the Arctic and the North Atlantic Oceans, but the endemic species identify environmental differences or partial isolation of the western Arctic Ocean. The species association suggests a cold but milder paleoclimate than that which existed during Pleistocene glacial intervals.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Altingioxylon hainanensis</Emphasis> sp. nov.: earliest fossil wood record of the family Altingiaceae in Eastern Asia and its implications for historical biogeography

A new species, Altingioxylon hainanensis, is described from the Eocene Changchang Formation of the Changchang Basin on Hainan Island, South China. It is the first record of a fossil wood assigned to Altingiaceae found in China, and the most ancient evidence of wood for this family in eastern Asia. The new species is similar to A. rhodoleioides, known since the Miocene in India and Java Island, and to Altingia hisauchii from the Miocene to Pliocene of Japan. The close resemblance between these species and Liquidambar sp., known from the Middle Miocene of western North America, provides additional evidence for the migration of their ancestors from Asia to North America across the Bering land bridge during the Miocene. Distinctions in ray sizes between the eastern Asian specimens and their contemporaries from Europe to Kazakhstan is suggested as a result of the divergence between the large eastern Asian clade and the North American–west Asian clade within Altingiaceae during the Eocene–Oligocene. The presence of crystals in ray cells may be considered an ancestral condition that persists in the eastern Asian lineages up to the extant Altingia and Semiliquidambar, but which was lost in other Altingiaceae in the course of evolution.     

Middle–Late Permian tetrapods from the Rio do Rasto Formation,Southern Brazil: a biostratigraphic reassessment

Dias‐da‐Silva, S. 2011: Middle–Late Permian tetrapods from the Rio do Rasto Formation, Southern Brazil: a biostratigraphic reassessment. Lethaia, Vol. 45, pp. 109–120. The Rio do Rasto Formation (Permian of Southern Brazil) was previously regarded as Guadalupian–early Lopingian age. Three tetrapod‐based localities are known: the Serra do Cadeado area, Aceguá and Posto Queimado. The latest tetrapod‐based biostratigraphic contribution considers that the Posto Queimado and Aceguá faunas are coeval and Wordian (middle Guadalupian) in age, correlated to the Isheevo faunas from Eastern Europe and to the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of South Africa; whereas the Serra do Cadeado fauna is Capitanian (late Guadalupian), correlated to the Kotelnich fauna of Eastern Europe and, from bottom to top, to upper Pristerognathus, Tropidostoma and lower Cistecephalus assemblage zones of South Africa. A re‐evaluation of the tetrapods from the Rio do Rasto Formation and new fossil discoveries in the localities of Posto Queimado and Serra do Cadeado area (melosaurine and platyoposaurine temnospondyls, a basal anomodont, a dinocephalian and a basal dicynodont) supports a new tetrapod‐based biostratigraphic scheme for the Rio do Rasto Formation. Accordingly, the age of the fauna at Aceguá is late Roadian‐early Wordian, whereas the locality of Posto Queimado is late Wordian‐Capitanian. The Serra do Cadeado Area is correlated with both southernmost ones (Guadalupian) but also Wuchiapinghian (early Lopingian). □Paraná Basin, Passa Dois Group, tetrapod biostratigraphy, Western Gondwana.     

Integrated study of fauna and microflora from the Early Devonian (Pragian–Emsian) of northwestern Argentina

The Devonian System in northern Argentina has been broadly analysed, but details of its lithologies, biostratigraphy and fossil content have not been presented in a comprehensive study. We performed the first integrative analysis of the palynological and macrofossil content from the Pescado Formation at the Zenta Range, Argentina. We define a new species of cryptospore and extend the stratigraphic record of the ichnogenus Psammichnites isp. for South America. The stratigraphic ranges of the palynomorphs suggest a time span from the ?late Lochkovian to Pragian–earliest Emsian, but the co-occurrences of key invertebrates narrow the age of the beds to the late Pragian and early Emsian. Moreover, sedimentary analysis indicates a proximal shoreface–foreshore depocenter during this time range for the Zenta region. The contraction phase of the basin during the middle Pragian and Emsian is evidenced by the presence of sand bodies at the top of the column and the higher supply of terrigenous components. During this regression event, a low diversity Malvinokaffric Realm brachiopod assemblage occurs, with dominance of Australospirifer hawkinsi. The predominance of the latter species during this event is coeval with the first decline of the Malvinokaffric Realm in the neighbouring Paraná basin.     

Systematics,phylogeny and evolutionary pattern of the hystricognath rodent Eumysops (Echimyidae) from the Plio–Pleistocene of southern South America

?Eumysops is a peculiar representative of the currently tropical family Echimyidae, which evolved in increasingly dry and cold Plio–Pleistocene environments of southern South America. The results of a systematic and stratigraphic review of the genus, and of phylogenetic analyses based on both morphology and a combined morphological–molecular dataset in the context of extant representatives, are presented here. Recognised diversity includes four previously described species plus a new one from the late Pliocene. These species form a well-supported monophyletic clade, sister to the late Miocene ?Pampamys and the extant Thrichomys. The position of ?Eumysops–?Pampamys–Thrichomys in a major clade including non-‘eumysopine’ echimyids constrains the traditional taxon Eumysopinae only to these three genera. Phylogeny and stratigraphic distribution of ?Eumysops species suggest an essentially cladogenetic evolutionary pattern. Beyond this, a gradual directional change, involving increase in size and in molar hypsodonty, is shown by ?Eumysops chapalmalensis as part of a late Pliocene faunal turnover interpreted as a local representation of the 2.5-Ma cooling global event. Distinctive skeletal and dental anatomy of ?Eumysops, including large orbits, shortened braincase, marked hypsodonty and postcranial specialisations, would be a result of its southern history related to a particular palaeoclimatic context.     

A tale of North and South America: time and mode of dispersal of the amphitropical genus Munroa (Poaceae,Chloridoideae)

Plant disjunctions have provided some of the most intriguing distribution patterns historically addressed by biogeographers. We evaluated the three hypotheses that have been postulated to explain these patterns [vicariance, stepping‐stone dispersal and long‐distance dispersal (LDD)] using Munroa, an American genus of grasses with six species and a disjunct distribution between the desert regions of North and South America. The ages of clades, cytology, ancestral characters and areas of distribution were investigated in order to establish relationships among species, to determine the time of divergence of the genus and its main lineages, and to understand further the biogeographical and evolutionary history of this genus. Bayesian inference recovered the North American M. pulchella as sister species to the rest. Molecular dating and ancestral area analyses suggest that Munroa originated in North America in the late Miocene–Pliocene (7.2 Mya; 8.2–6.5 Mya). Based on these results, we postulate that two dispersal events modelled the current distribution patterns of Munroa: the first from North to South America (7.2 Mya; 8.2–6.5 Mya) and the second (1.8 Mya; 2–0.8 Mya) from South to North America. Arid conditions of the late Miocene–Pliocene in the Neogene and Quaternary climatic oscillations in North America and South America were probably advantageous for the establishment of populations of Munroa. We did not find any relationship between ploidy and dispersal events, and our ancestral character analyses suggest that shifts associated with dispersal and seedling establishment, such as habit, reproductive system, disarticulation of rachilla, and shape and texture of the glume, have been important in these species reaching new areas. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 179 , 110–125.     

Early Permian radiolarians from Southern Thailand,the deglaciation of Gondwana and the age of the basal Ratburi Group

The first radiolarian fauna obtained from Permian carbonates in Thailand is of late Kungurian age and is present in the basal beds of the carbonate–mudstone–chert Phap Pha Formation, Ratburi Group. This succession contains several species of the radiolarian Pseudoalbaillella, and some sponge spicules. The radiolarian fauna consists of abundant Pseudoalbaillella aidensis and P. elegans together with P. fusiformis, P. longtanensis, P. m. rhombothoracata and P. sp. A. Other species include P. cf. aidensis, P. cf. elongata, P. cf. fusiformis, P. cf. ishigai, P. cf. lomentaria, P. cf. longicornis, P. cf. longtanensis, P. cf. ornata, P. cf. simplex, P. cf. m. scalprata, P. cf. m. postscalprata, P. cf. u–forma m. I, P. cf. u–forma m. II, and P. spp. The radiolarian assemblage suggests its correlation to the P. longtanensis Zone which, in turn, is correlated to the P. ishigai Zone of late Kungurian age. The occurrence of an abundant but generically low–diversity radiolarian fauna suggests restricted physical conditions and, with other evidence, suggests deposition along a cool deglaciating or deglaciated continental margin with an abundance of silica possibly provided by glacial meltwaters. The abundant chert in the Phap Pha Formation is part of the widespread Permian Chert Event.     

New finds of the Neogene lizard and snake fauna (Squamata: Lacertilia; Serpentes) from the Slovak Republic

This paper deals with the squamate fauna from three Neogene localities in Slovakia. Neogene lizards and snakes have rarely been reported from this region and many aspects of their evolution and palaeodiversity are still poorly understood. Squamate remains from the Upper Miocene (MN 9) locality of Borsky Sv?ty Jur belong to at least five different taxa: Lacerta sp., Pseudopus sp., Colubroidea indet. (? Elapidae), Natricinae indet. and Colubridae indet. The ophidian assemblage from Ivanovce (Lower Pliocene; MN 15b) is dominated by colubrids, mainly Zamenis longissimus. The remainder is comprised of the species Natrix natrix. Squamate material from this locality also includes Lacerta cf. agilis, Pseudopus sp. and Ophisaurus sp., while that from Hajnáčka (Upper Pliocene; MN 16a) is extremely poor, comprising just one taxon - Natrix natrix. The Ivanovce material represents the oldest proof of the former existence of the species Zamenis longissimus and Natrix natrix in the Slovak Republic. The composition of this snake fauna indicates faunistic and palaeoecological changes at the end of the Miocene, although this was not as rapid as at similar localities in Europe. The squamate fauna of Slovakia has changed very little since the beginning of the Pliocene, and the majority of taxa are represented by species that currently occur in this region.