In a field near the small town of Loranca del Campo, in the middle of sunflower fields so typical of the province of Cuenca.is where more than four decades ago some ancient fossil remains of the skull and jaw of an animal that at that time was unknown in those parts appeared. Now, after many years of research, the results have shed light on this surprising finding recently published in the scientific journal ‘Palaeontographica-A’, which points to the first record in the Iberian Peninsula of a specimen of about 22 kilograms of Ischyrictis zibethoides with an approximate age of 16 million years.
Thus, all of this does not seem to say anything, but it is a very important fact from the point of view of paleontology. That is the scientific name of a giant mustelid of which there was no evidence in such a western latitude in Europe, since remains of it had only appeared in Germany and France. «The discovery occurred in the middle of the 80s of the last century at the site known as La Retama, where a team of paleontologists from the National Museum of Natural Sciences “They found a large specimen of that species, much larger than weasels, martens or badgers,” Alberto Valenciano Vaquero, one of the researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) who has led this project, explains to ABC. in recent years.
This research, in which the National Museum of Natural Sciences-CSIC (MNCN) and the University of Malaga (UMA) also participate, gives a dating of about 16 million years (middle Miocene) and is considered for the diversity and originality of the mammal fauna found to be one of the most important in the region. The work has focused on the direct study of fossils and the use of non-destructive three-dimensional techniques such as X-ray computed tomography (micro CT-SCAN), allowing access to the permanent dentition hidden inside the jaw in a juvenile specimen in which only the baby teeth were visible, the paleontologists report in a note.
The diversity of medium- and large-sized mustelids is relatively lower in the Iberian Peninsula than in other areas of Europe during the early and middle Miocene (known as the Aragonian). «The oldest Iberian fossil record of these forms comes from the early Miocene of Zaragoza with the genus Iberictisand excepting very few and fragmentary remains of Ischyrictis found in Portugal, there is an important gap in the fossil record of these mustelids until the end of the Late Aragonian, where several forms coexisted in Catalonia (Laphictis, Hoplictis, Eomellivora). The La Retama site partially fills this temporary gap,” says Alberto Valenciano..
Team of paleontologists, in one of the excavations at the La Retama site (Cuenca) during 1988
Temporary void completed
The director of the research indicates that during the middle Miocene in Europe there was a notable diversity of fossil carnivores, highlighting large mustelids (more than 10 kilograms). These animals occupied a large part of the mesocarnivore niche, which in North America was formed by large mustelids and canids. However, in the absence of canids in Europe, these mustelids prospered. With the appearance of the first hyenas, both groups became the main mesocarnivores of the ecosystem thanks to their generalist dentition that allowed them to adapt to different food sources. “This work suggests that the decrease in the diversity of large mustelids in European faunas towards the end of the middle Miocene and the beginning of the upper Miocene coincided with the radiation of large hyenas and the appearance of other more specialized giant mustelids,” Valenciano points out.
La Retama, along with other deposits located in the same area, were discovered in the early 1970s, when prospecting began in search of uranium minerals. Subsequently They were excavated by a team of paleontologists from the MNCN-CSIC led by Jorge Morales from 1983 to 1993.. Among the mammal fauna found, Gomphotherium stands out (similar to a mastodon with 4 defenses), rhinoceroses, primitive horses (Anchiterium), ruminants (Cainotherium, Xenokeryx), wild boars (Listriodon), and carnivores belonging to forms without current representatives such as amphiphonids (Amphicyon) and hemicyonids (Hemicyon, Plithocyon) that resembled today’s large wolves and bears.
Now, the site of La Retama and the small town of Loranca de Campo, located in La Alcarria, Cuenca and with a population of less than 100 inhabitants, can boast of having provided shelter to the oldest giant mustelid found in Western Europe.
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