New species of Deinogalerix (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla)from the late Miocene of Scontrone (Abruzzo, central Italy)

Deinogalerix is a typical component of the late Miocene insular fauna of Gargano(south-eastern Italy). Remains of this taxon had also been found over the last 20 yearsat the early Tortonian site of Scontrone (Abruzzo, central Italy), but they had neverbeen described in detail. Two new species are introduced. One of them, D. samniticussp. nov., is larger sized and better documented, and received a formal description. Theother entity is clearly distinct from D. samniticus sp. nov., but it is merely representedby a single mandible. It is therefore presented here as a different, but undeterminedspecies, Deinogalerix sp. Comparative analyses show that the new species haveexclusive dental proportions that distinguish them from all the other species of Deinogalerixand seem to exclude them from the direct ancestry of the Gargano clade. Consistentwith its early stratigraphic age, D. samniticus sp. nov. bears a suite of primitivecharacters of the genus. Besides these, however, it also bears the autapomorphic relativeproportion between p3 and p4.The analysis of the erinaceids from Scontrone supports the assumption thatDeinogalerix presumably descended from a hypothetical early – middle Miocene‘Parasorex-like’ galericine. On the other hand, it seems to rule out the supposed commonancestry of the giant Deinogalerix and the small gymnure Apulogalerix from Gargano.Because the presumed ancestor of Deinogalerix dates back to the early – middleMiocene, the study corroborates the asynchronous colonization of the Apulia Platform.