New Dendromus species (Rodentia, Muroídea) from Langebaanweg (Pliocene, South Africa). Stratigraphical and paleoecological consequences.

Two new species of Dendromus are described from the Langebaanweg site which precises the evolutionary trend among this genus in South Africa and gives further paleoenvironmental indications. Two evolutionary stages are described: D. darti nov. sp. shows low-crowned molars with bunodont cusps and its more closest relative would be D. melanozis from the Cape region. On the contrary, D. averyi nov. sp. is more lophodont and is better related with the modem D. melanotis. Both species are at a less evolved stage than the Dendromus sp. from Laetolil Beds at Laetoli. The Langebaanweg deposits cannot still be dated by biostratigraphy but they clearly cannot be older than the basis of Pliocene times. The association of Dendromus and Mystromys in the same levels indicates a grassland environment with woodland patches as well as probable swamps. 

The investigations undertaken at Crivadia (Hateg Depression, Hunedoara District, Romania), the type locality of Crivadiatherium mackennai RADULESCO el al. (Radulesco, Iliesco et lliesco, 1976), led to the discovery of remains of a new Embrithopod. Close to the above mentioned species, but larger in size, this animal is here described as a new species of Crivadiatherium, C. iliescui. ln addition, the comparison made between the forms indicated above and Palaeaamasía kansui OZANSOY from the Eocene deposits of Anatolia (Ozansoy, 1966; Sen et Heintz, 1979) showed that the latter species included a heterogeneous material; this permitted us to distinguish the form in the Anatolian locality Ciçekdag-Arabin Kôyü under the name Palaeoamasia sp. The geographical distribution and diversity of the Embrithopod species under discussion (Balkan, Anatolia) support the idea of an eurasiatic origin of this group and seem to suggest the existence during the Eocene of a particular faunal province in south-eastern Europe. 

The discovery of eggshells of ornithoid type is signaled for the first time in the continental Campanian and Maastrichtían of Provence. The taxonomie relationship of these eggshells and their interest in the biostratigraphical study of Upper Cretaceous of Provence are discussed. 

Two new finds of pantodont materials from southern China, assigned to Archaeolambda, are described in this paper. One, a new species from the Nanxiong Basin, Guangdong Province, is similar to Alcidedorbignya inopinata from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa, Bolivia in size. It provides reliable evidence of the occurrence of Archaeolambda in the early-middle Paleocene of southern China. The second find includes specimens of Archaeolambda sp. cf. A. planicanina from the ?late Paleocene of Hengyang Basin, Hunan Province, which are the first record of a fossil mammal from the area near Hengyang city. The only vertebrate fossils previously found here were two genera of crocodiles discovered in 1938. This find sheds new light on the local biostratigraphy. 

THE ANIMALS. Systematische Zoologie by A. REMANE, V. STORCH, and U. WELSCH. 1986, Edition 3. Cloth and paperbound. Stuttgart and New York : Gustav Fischer Verlag. xvi + 698 pp. DM 86. (Geb.) & DM 72 (kart.). 

L'ouvrage est divisé en trois grandes parties traitant successivement: I. l'anatomie ("Proboscidean flesh and bones"), en abordant la taxonomie, l'allure générale et l'éco-éthologie des proboscidiens actuels et fossiles; II. les causes de mortalité collective naturelle et provoquée chez les actuels; III. les documents fossiles et l'extinction des formes anciennes d'Amérique du Nord. 

Editorial for celebrating the publication of the volume 20.

La revue PALEOVERTEBRATA a été fondée en 1967 par Louis THALER, à une époque où il n'existait, au plan international, que deux périodiques uniquement consacrés aux vertébrés fossiles. Actuellement ce nombre n'est que de quatre. A l'origine la revue fut essentiellement créée pour diffuser les résultats des chercheurs du Laboratoire de Paléontologie de l'Université de Montpellier, alors en début d'expansion et plusieurs thèses et de nombreux travaux directement liés à des thèses y furent publiés ce qui n'excluait déjà pas la publication d'articles d'auteurs étrangers.
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The Caudata are known by two Salamandridae ; one of them is attributed to the genus Megalotriton. The Pelobatidae form the major part of the Anura ; a few bones indicate also the presence of Neobatrachia.