New paleontological research in turtles and other vertebrates: Papers in honor of Dr. Emiliano Jiménez Fuentes

Abstract

This special volume, “New Paleontological Research in Turtles and other Vertebrates”, pays tribute to the Spanish Researcher Dr. Emiliano Jiménez Fuentes, who passed away in December 2021. His role was fundamental for the development of the studies on the vertebrate faunas of the Spanish Eocene Duero Basin, as well as for the creation of the Collection of Fossil Vertebrates of the Duero Basin (“Sala de las Tortugas” of the University of Salamanca), which houses more than 25,000 specimens of vertebrates, including about 20 holotypes of mammals and reptiles. Since 1960 and over several decades, Dr. Jiménez Fuentes was the leading researcher in the study of Iberian fossil turtles. Fourteen scientific articles on various topics, related to his extensive professional career, are part of this volume. Representatives of several lineages of reptiles and mammals from the Duero Basin are analyzed, from systematic perspectives, but also considering other aspects of their paleobiology. Among them, a new eusuchian crocodyliform (i.e., Asiatosuchus oenotriensis) and a new hyaenodontid mammal (i.e., Prodissopsalis jimenezi) are included. Taxa from other ages and geographic regions, but with systematic affinities with those deposited in the “Sala de las Tortugas,” are analyzed in other articles of this volume. Given the great interest of Dr. Jiménez Fuentes in the evolutionary history of Testudinata, several papers analyze members of this lineage, including the description of a new giant tortoise from the Miocene of Germany (i.e., Titanochelon schleichi), and that of a new marine cryptodire from Portugal (i.e., Lusochelys emilianoi).