Palaeogiraffa Bonis and Bouvrain, 2003

Geraads, Denis, Kaya, Tanju & Mayda, Serdar, 2005, Late Miocene large mammals from Yulafli, Thrace region, Turkey, and their biogeographic implications, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50 (3), pp. 523-544 : 536-537

Genus? Palaeogiraffa Bonis and Bouvrain, 2003 Type species:? Decennatherium macedoniae Geraads, 1989 ; Pentalophos, Greece, Vallesian, Miocene.

? Palaeogiraffa cf. macedoniae ( Geraads, 1989) Material from Yulafl I.—Three complete metacarpals, one incomplete metatarsal, several distal humeri. No teeth have been found.

Description and comparisons.—This giraffid is a large form; the distal articulation of the humeri has the cylindrical shape of the largest members of the family. The three perfectly preserved metacarpals are very similar in size and morphology. Their proportions ( Fig. 13 ) are quite unusual for the late Miocene of the Eastern Mediterranean, and indeed for the family has a whole. They are about as long as those of the most dolichopodial Samotherium , S. sinense from China ( Bohlin 1926), but are more slender, and even more slender than a specimen from the Turolian of Gülpinar (a locality geographically close to Yulafli). Thus, the Yulafli giraffid does not belong to Samotherium , the classic large turolian giraffid of the Turkish area. They are much shorter, however, than those of the giraffe−like Bohlinia attica , a close relative of the living form.

A few other giraffids from this area are more similar. Among the Sinap specimens, which document at least three species, the metacarpal MTA−1745 (very probably of Vallesian age) is only slightly longer and more slender. It is likely, but not quite certain, that it belongs to the species called Samotherium pamiri Ozansoy, 1965 , which is probably the same as the Sinap species called Decennatherium macedoniae by Gentry (2003). Metacarpals from Pentalophos in Greece, type locality of the latter species, are also very similar. Bonis and Bouvrain (2003) erected the new genus Palaeogiraffa for it. They included in the same genus S. pamiri (referring as well the material from Xirochori to this species), and a new species from Ravin de la Pluie, that they called P. major (probably the same as the Decennatherium ? sp. in Geraads 1989).

We agree with Bonis and Bouvrain (2003) that there is no strong argument for putting these Eastern Mediterranean forms in Decennatherium , known from Spain only, and that this assignment ( Geraads 1978, 1989) was misleading, especially in terms of biogeography. Still, there is no argument either for thinking that they are very different, especially as, while the skull of Decennatherium is reasonably well−known ( Morales 1985), evidence from the Eastern Mediterranean is scanty, and includes almost only teeth and limb−bones. The best collection comes from Pentalophos, and the binomen Palaeogiraffa macedoniae can be used for material from this locality. It is also true that these Vallesian Eastern Mediterranean forms (from Pentalophos, Ravin de la Pluie, Xirochori, and Sinap) are distinct from those of the classic Turolian sites, but we believe that referring them all to the same genus is far−fetched, especially as resemblances mostly rest upon primitive dental (mostly deciduous) features. Therefore, we prefer to compare the Yulafli form with the best known of these taxa, rather than attempting to refer it to one of the evolutionary stages envisioned by Bonis and Bouvrain (2003), which need further substantiation.

Figures

Fig. 13. Plot of length vs. distal width of the metacarpal of some large late Miocene Giraffidae. Black symbols are for “Palaeogiraffa”, others are for Samotherium.