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April 2004 - August 2006
September 2006 - present
September 2000 - December 2003
Publications
Publications (101)
European terrestrial mammal sites dated from the late Ypresian are predominantly known from the Paris Basin. In Southern Europe (France and Spain), some localities are also known, but all have only yielded small faunas, composed by few taxa. An exception is the rich locality of Mas de Gimel (city of Montpellier, Hérault, France), which has long bee...
Cet article décrit du matériel dentaire et postcrânien inédit d’artiodactyles et de périssodactyles issu du gisement de Valbro (Phosphorites du Quercy, France). Il s’agit de la cinquième contribution sur ce gise- ment. Ce paléokarst a livré 14 taxons d’euongulés avec, parmi les artiodactyles, le dichobunidé Dichobune fraasi, un entélodontidé Entelo...
A cheek tooth recently unearthed in the Lopar Sandstone unit, of late Eocene age, in the northern part of Rab Island, Croatia, is one of the very few Eocene mammalian remains found in the Adriatic area. Thorough comparison of this tooth with those of Old-World Palaeogene mammalian orders suggests that it is a M3 belonging to an embrithopod afrother...
Revision of the anthracothere Parabrachyodus hyopotamoides, endemic to the Lower Miocene of the Indian subcontinent and thus far confused with Brachyodus, is made possible by the description of unpublished specimens from the Samane Nala fossil-bearing deposits of the Bugti Hills (Pakistan). This is the first biochronologically constrained occurrenc...
Since molecular data identified hippopotamids as the closest living relatives of cetaceans, a common aquatic/semiaquatic ancestor hypothesis for these modern taxa has naturally been proposed. However, recent molecular studies concluded that most molecular adaptations in extant cetaceans occurred after their split from hippopotamids. If the question...
Early Pliocene hominin evolutionary scenarios proposed to date mostly rely on paleontological investigations from eastern Africa. Filling major geographical gaps in the fossil record could potentially invalidate these scenarios and stimulate development of improved theories. Based on published literature, no Pliocene fossil of continental vertebrat...
The Oligocene Malembo locality, Cabinda exclave, Angola, has yielded a rich vertebrate fauna represented by fragmentary remains. This fossiliferous locality is the only definite occurrence of Oligocene terrestrial mammals in sub-Saharan West Africa. The hyracoids from Malembo have only been very succinctly described and compared thus far, so that t...
The Lophiodontidae are endemic perissodactyls from Europe that flourished during the Eocene. Despite their preponderance in the European fossil record, their exact origin and relationships within the perissodactyls remain unknown due to the rare and fragmentary material in the early Ypresian, the time of their earliest radiation. Lophiaspis maurett...
Hippopotamoids are herbivorous mammals that originated in the late middle Eocene. This taxon includes animals with a great variety of sizes and body proportions, from small and gracile forms with slender limbs to heavy massive ones. Many hippopotamoids have previously been considered semi-aquatic but recent studies have highlighted a diversity of e...
Teeth are frequently used in phylogeny in order to better characterize the evolution of extinct mammal species. While most studies have focused on the adult dentition, the consideration of characters from the deciduous dentition could also contribute to reinforce phylogenetic assumptions or disentangle phylogenetic issues. We chose to investigate t...
The fossiliferous localities of Aumelas and Saint-Martin-de-Londres in the Montpellier limestones (Hérault, France), known since the 1960s and 1980s, were originally dated as late middle Eocene (Lutetian), close to the European Mammal Palaeogene Reference Level 13 (MP13). This period is a key time interval in the initial radiation of European endem...
We describe the carnivorous mammals from the Eocene French locality of Aumelas (Hérault, France). All the carnivores that have been recovered from the fossiliferous locality belong to the Hyaenodonta, a group that was very diverse during the Eocene of Europe. Three new species are described. Matthodon peignei n. sp. is intermediate in size between...
We report here three new elasmobranch fossil taxa from Thanetian–Lower Lutetian nearshore marine deposits of northeastern (Matam region) and central-western (Sine-Saloum region) Senegal. These three new taxa represent the oldest species of the enigmatical elasmobranch Odontorhytis, the oldest putative representatives of marine potamotrygonid, and a...
A long hiatus encompassing most of the Eocene (end of the Ypresian to the early Priabonian) breaks up the proboscidean evolutionary history, which is otherwise documented by a rich fossil record. Only two post-Ypresian localities from West Africa (Mali and Senegal) have yielded scarce Moeritherium -like dental remains. Here, we study one of these r...
Les sites fossilifères d’Aumelas et de Saint-Martin-de-Londres (Hérault, France) sont connus respectivement depuis les années 60 et 80, et ont toujours été rapproché du niveau repère mammalien paléogène MP13 de l’Éocène moyen terminal (Lutétien). Parmi les mammifères découverts, les artiodactyles basaux endémiques européens apparaissent comme mal d...
Cetaceans constitute a textbook example of the secondary adaptation of tetrapods to aquatic life. This major event in the evolutionary history of mammals is often linked in the literature to the limb‐to‐fin transition. Paradoxically, limb bones are scarce in the fossil record of early cetaceans, and the transition from a limb‐adapted morphology for...
Les sites fossilifères d’Aumelas et de Saint-Martin-de-Londres (Hérault, France) sont connus respectivement depuis les années 60 et 80, et ont toujours été rapproché du niveau repère mammalien paléogène MP13 de l’Éocène moyen terminal (Lutétien). Parmi les mammifères découverts, les artiodactyles basaux endémiques européens apparaissent comme mal d...
La découverte dans les années 1960 d’un gisement fossilifère à vertébrés dans les calcaires lacustres autour d’Aumelas (ouest de Montpellier) fut l’une des premières mentions de mammifères dans l’Eocène moyen du sud de la France. Rapproché du niveau repère mammalien paléogène MP13 (fin Lutétien), le gisement d’Aumelas constituait alors un jalon dét...
Anthracotheres dispersed from Asia toward Africa at least three times: at the Eocene/Oligocene transition, during the early Miocene and later during the Miocene. Those dispersals are important datum events for African Tertiary biochronology. New fossil remains of early Libycosaurus, the genus implicated in the late Miocene dispersal, are described...
Studying ontogeny in both extant and extinct species can unravel the mechanisms underlying mammal diversification and specialization. Among mammalian clades, Cetartiodactyla encompass species with a wide range of adaptations, and ontogenetic evidence could clarify longstanding debates on the origins of modern specialized families. Here, we study th...
The Lophiodontidae is an emblematic and well-documented Eocene family of perissodactyls from Western Europe. However, after more than a century and a half of studies, lophiodontids still display a complex systematics associated with blurry intraspecific variation and a poorly known early radiation. The locality of La Borie, located near the city of...
Rodent enamel microstructure has been extensively investigated, primarily on the basis of 2D electronic microscopy data. The nature and dynamics of the ameloblasts (the enamel‐secreting cells) have also been well studied. However, critical issues still remain surrounding exactly how the ameloblasts produce the astonishing microstructural complexity...
Since its first erection almost 200 years ago, palaeontologists have assigned to the genus Anthracotherium many species, some with dubious descriptions. Although it is a key taxon for specifying the invasion of Europe by terrestrial mammals during the well-studied Grande Coupure Event at the beginning of the Oligocene, the genus has never been revi...
The Hippopotamidae have been a major component of the African wetland fauna for the last 7 million years, following the ‘Hippopotamine Event,’ i.e., the sudden emergence in the fossil record of the subfamily Hippopotaminae, including both extant species. The general dearth of African fossiliferous deposits dated between 9.5 Ma and 7.5 Ma concealed...
As description of enamel microstructure in mammals is mainly performed through 2D sections, interpretations of its formation and development can be misinterpreted by neglecting the complexity of its 3D arrangement. Through Simulenam, a novel software dedicated to the simulation of enamel prisms, and an updated, integrative model of decussation form...
We describe here an ichthyological and herpetological assemblage that was obtained from washing-screening sediments from the early late Oligocene locality of Lokone, Kenya. This provides original information on the hitherto oldest known fauna from the East African Rift since it started to open from north to south during the Oligocene. The descripti...
Anoplotheriinae are Paleogene European artiodactyls that present a unique postcranial morphology with a tridactyl autopodium and uncommon limb orientation. This peculiar morphology led to various hypotheses regarding anoplotheriine locomotion from semiaquatic to partly arboreal or partly bipedal. The petrosal bone, housing the organs of balance, an...
We present new material of the selenodont anthracothere Hemimeryx blanfordi from the Oligocene deposits of the Bugti Hills (Balochistan, Pakistan), collected between 1999 and 2002. This is the first undisputed Oligocene occurrence of the species, previously known from the early Miocene of Pakistan. Investigation of the molar enamel microstructure r...
We describe five new specimens of Hippopotamidae from the Miocene of Napudet, a new site in southwestern Turkana Basin, Kenya. These specimens include fragmentary maxillae with teeth and a well-preserved mandibular symphysis. We attribute them to Kenyapotamus ternani, the least known species within Kenyapotamus, on the basis of relatively small den...
The description of original material of anthracothere and proboscidean in the new locality of Bir el Ater 3 from East
Algeria, and a thorough review of early Libycosaurus remains of Bir el Ater 2 allows us validating L. algeriensis as the smallest and
earliest species of Libycosaurus and probably the earliest migrant of the genus from Asia. The pre...
Intraspecific variation of endocranial structures is not widely studied in most mammals, particularly fossil mammals, which are mainly represented by a few preserved crania. However, a description of this variation is necessary to be able to study fossil mammals from an ecological and phylogenetic perspective. To facilitate further analyses on foss...
According to molecular data, hippopotamuses and cetaceans form a clade excluding other extant cetartiodactyls. Despite a wealth of spectacular specimens documenting cetacean evolution, this relationship remains poorly substantiated by the fossil record. Indeed, the evolutionary path leading from the hippo-cetacean ancestor to Hippopotamidae is plag...
This contribution contains the 3D model described and figured in the following publication: Hautier L, Sarr R, Lihoreau F, Tabuce R, Marwan Hameh P. 2014. First record of the family Protocetidae in the Lutetian of Senegal (West Africa). Palaeovertebrata 38 (2)-e2
The earliest cetaceans are found in the early Eocene of Indo-Pakistan. By the late middle to late Eocene, the group colonized most oceans of the planet. This late Eocene worldwide distribution clearly indicates that their dispersal took place during the middle Eocene (Lutetian). We report here the first discovery of a protocetid fossil from middle...
This contribution contains the 3D model described and figured in the following publication: Hautier L, Sarr R,
Lihoreau F, Tabuce R, Marwan Hameh P. 2014. First record of the family Protocetidae in the Lutetian of Senegal (West Africa).
Palaeovertebrata 38 (2)-e2
The analysis of a large sample of anthracothere remains discovered by the Mission Paléoanthropologique Franco-Tchadienne at Toros-Menalla (TM), Northern Chad, has revealed the occurrence of a single species with a large intraspecific morphological variability. Taxonomic problems triggered the necessity of naming a new species for the TM anthracothe...
Investigations on enamel microstructure provided new data for the debate on hippopotamid origin. Observations indicated a diversity of patterns relevant to phylogenetic inferences. Within Hippopotamoidea, the distribution of these patterns seems to be in favour of a hippopotamid origin within the Palaeogene African anthracotheres. Enamel microchara...
Anthracotheres ("Anthracotheriidae", Hippopotamoidea, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) lived almost worldwide from the Late Eocene to the Early Pliocene, migrating early from Southeast Asia, firstly towards North America, then towards Europe and Africa (Lihoreau and Ducrocq, 2007). The members of this family were adapted to many different ecologies and succ...
A new Eocene locality in southern France has yielded a poorly diversified vertebrate fauna but does contain abundant material representing a new species of early equoid, Pachynolophus eulaliensis, sp. nov. Biostratigraphic data for this new locality of Sainte-Eulalie suggest a middle Ypresian age. The new species is the oldest representative of the...
Early hystricognathous rodents from Africa are primarily documented by two basal and extinct groups, the paraphyletic “Phiomyidae” and the Gaudeamuridae, which were particularly well diversified through the late Eocene and the early Oligocene. However, in the absence of a comprehensive late Oligocene fossil record, the evolutionary history of Afric...
Recent excavations in northwestern Kenya have recovered a vertebrate fauna of late early or early late Oligocene age. Among the mammal remains, a fragmentary lower jaw and an isolated upper molar have been attributed to a small primate, Lokonepithecus manai gen. et sp. nov. Lokonepithecus is a primitive member of the Parapithecidae and possibly mos...
The fossil record of the Hippopotamidae can shed light on three major issues in mammalian evolution. First, as the Hippopotamidae are the extant sister group of Cetacea, gaining a better understanding of the origin of the Hippopotamidae and of their Paleogene ancestors will be instrumental in clarifying phylogenetic relationships within Cetartiodac...
Anthracotheriidae are a group of bunodont to selenodont artiodactyls distributed throughout the Old World and North America. The earliest anthracotheriids appear in the latest middle Eocene in Asia, and they survive into the late Miocene in Africa and Asia. Because members of the family are widespread, the group has often been important for interpr...
The affinities of the Hippopotamidae are at the core of the phylogeny of Cetartiodactyla (even-toed mammals: cetaceans, ruminants, camels, suoids, and hippos). Molecular phylogenies support Cetacea as sister group of the Hippopotamidae, implying a long ghost lineage between the earliest cetaceans (approximately 53 Ma) and the earliest hippopotamids...
The concentrations of atmospheric cosmogenic 10 Be normalized to the solubilized fraction of its stable isotope 9 Be have been measured in the authigenic phase leached from silicated continental sediments deposited since the upper Miocene in the northern Chad Basin. This method is validated by the systematic congruence with the biochronological est...
The earliest known hippopotamids, attributed to the subfamily Kenyapotaminae, are known essentially from dental remains of two species. The first was found in the middle Miocene of Kenya, the second at the beginning of the upper Miocene in eastern and northern Africa. The exact affinities of the Kenyapotaminae are critical for resolving the long de...
A new fossiliferous locality is reported from southwestern France (Moissac III) that yielded two skulls referred to the anthracotheriid Elomeryx crispus and the rhinocerotid Protaceratherium albigense, and an isolated rodent tooth. The anthracotheriid skull indicates a close relationship with E. borbonicus based on its cranial morphology. The rhino...
New fossil remains of the proboscidean genus Anancus are described. Among them, a complete skull allows us to revisit for the first time the entire Chadian Anancus fossil record. This genus occurred in the Old World from the late Miocene up to the early Pleistocene. The analysis of dental and cranial characters was allowed individual variations fro...
Captive animals are used extensively in actualistic bite mark studies, but such animals can exhibit novel physical, functional, and behavioral traits that may affect their utility as proxies for wild relatives, much less extinct analogues. Within Crocodylia, qualitative trends toward broader snouts and splayed teeth in captive animals have been rep...
The genus Primelephas Maglio 1970 gathers two primitive species of Elephantinae, only known through dental remains. A large sample of new fossils, discovered by the MPFT field missions in northern Chad Mio-Pliocene localities and attributed to this genus, allowed questioning the validity of one of the species. An intrageneric morphological variabil...
Ages were determined at two hominid localities from the Chad Basin in the Djurab Desert (Northern Chad). In the Koro Toro fossiliferous area, KT 12 locality (16°00′N, 18°53′E) was the site of discovery of Australopithecus bahrelghazali (Abel) and in the Toros-Menalla fossiliferous area, TM 266 locality (16°15′N, 17°29′E) was the site of discovery o...