On the last European giraffe, Palaeotragus inexspectatus (Mammalia: Giraffidae); new remains from the Early Pleistocene of Greece and a review of the species

Abstract

Eurasian Giraffidae went through a drastic biodiversity decline after the Miocene–Pliocene boundary; scanty palaeotragine populations are likely to have survived in Central Asia, providing the necessary stock for a Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene expansion from Central Asia to Spain and from the Mediterranean to southern Russia. Here, we describe new giraffid findings from the Greek middle Villafranchian faunas of Dafnero-3 and Volax and from the late Villafranchian faunas of Tsiotra Vryssi and Krimni-3, and we revise previous material from Dafnero-1. Our results support the synonymy of almost all the Villafranchian Eurasian giraffids under a single species of Palaeotragus, i.e. Palaeotragus inexspectatus, and allow us to improve its diagnosis. The orientation of the ossicones and the relative shortening of the lower premolar row might indicate affinities to some Late Miocene–Pliocene Palaeotragus from China. Our study suggests that P. inexspectatus was equally abundant at MNQ17 and MNQ18 in the Eastern Mediterranean and that its extinction after MNQ19 was probably attributable to the combination of the climatic and environmental turnover at the Villafranchian–Epivillafranchian boundary, along with the competition with emerging ruminant groups, such as giant cervids. A preliminary analysis of its palaeoecology suggests a giraffid more involved in grazing than its Late Miocene relatives.