Presence of the genus Afrodon [Mammalia, Lipotyphla (?), Adapisoriculidae] in Europe; new data for the problem of trans-Tethyan relations between Africa and Europe around the K/T boundary
Résumé
The species Adapisoriculus? germanicus Russell 1964 from the Late Palaeocene of Walbeck (G.D.R.) is recognized, after its revision, at Cernay (late Palaeocene of France) and referred to Afrodon Gheerbrant 1988, a genus recently described from the late Palaeocene of Morocco. The affinity between the European species and A. chleuhi, from Morocco, implies a trans-Tethyan terrestrial exchange between Africa and Europe at about the time of the deposition of the Walbeck fossiliferous sediments (corresponding to the earliest Thanetian of marine depositional areas) or well prior to it. Comparison of the two species also permits an emended diagnosis of the genus to be proposed.