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 Franc e has been quantitatively studied. The resulting pattern seems very similar to a contemporary sequence from central Spain (Calatayud-Teruel Basin). Th e fossil mammal-bearing localities are of different types: mainly karst inf ills in France and localities situated in sedimentary basins in Spain. In o rder to interpret the fossil record, a comparison has been made between sou thern France faunas of similar age but collected in karst infills and in ba sin deposits. There seems to be no difference between the two kinds of faun as 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 c an be attributed to local conditions. The comparison between southern Franc e and the Calatayud-Teruel Basin (central Spain) shows that: (1) similar tr ends occurred in the two areas; (2) differences between spectra were more i mportant during the late Early Miocene than during the Middle Miocene; (3) the shift between the late Early Miocene and the Middle Miocene environment s 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) 19 99 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.