First report of “<i>Mammut</i>” (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the Upper Miocene of Turkey
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Mammutidae comprise a proboscidean family that originated in Africa during the late Oligocene, dispersed across the Holarctic during the Miocene, and survived in North America until the end of the Pleistocene. Despite their long evolutionary history and wide geographic distribution mammutids are particularly scarce in the Miocene of Eurasia. Here, we present a new mammutid specimen (an upper deciduous premolar) from the Upper Miocene locality of Sazak in southwestern Turkey. Morphological and metric traits of the tooth, in particular the well-expressed zygodonty, are distinct from the more basal <i>Zygolophodon</i> and permit its assignment to the more derived “<i>Mammut</i>.” Due to the absence of more diagnostic specimens, a specific attribution is not possible; however, considering the Turolian age of the associated fauna an attribution to the Late Miocene representative of the genus, “<i>Mammut</i>” <i>obliquelophus</i>, is possible. Turolian mammutids are rare in the fossil record and therefore our knowledge remains only fragmentary. Despite the existence of a single specimen, the presence of this genus in Sazak corresponds to its first report in the Upper Miocene of Turkey, as well as the first one in western Asia. The presence of “<i>Mammut</i>” in the Upper Miocene of China was recently confirmed, and therefore the record of “<i>Mammut</i>” at Sazak, i.e., at the western margin of Asia, not only adds to the scanty record of the genus in the Upper Miocene of Eurasia but also provides another line of evidence of the paleozoogeographic link enabling Europe–East Asia proboscidean interchanges during the Late Miocene.
乳齿象科（Mammutidae）是一类长鼻目（Proboscidea）类群，起源于渐新世晚期的非洲，于中新世时期扩散至全北区，并在北美延续至更新世末期。尽管乳齿象类拥有漫长的演化历史与广泛的地理分布，但在欧亚大陆的中新世地层中，其化石记录尤为稀少。本次研究报道了一件产自土耳其西南部萨扎克（Sazak）晚中新世地层的乳齿象类新标本——一枚上乳前臼齿。该牙齿的形态与度量特征，尤其是发育良好的脊齿构造（zygodonty），与更为原始的轭齿象属（Zygolophodon）存在显著差异，因此可将其归入更为进步的乳齿象属（Mammut）。由于缺乏更具诊断价值的标本，目前无法确定其具体物种归属；但结合伴生动物群的图罗利阶（Turolian）时代，可将其暂定为该属晚中新世的代表物种——斜脊乳齿象（Mammut obliquelophus）。图罗利阶的乳齿象类化石记录极为稀少，因此学界对该类群的认知仍较为零散。尽管仅发现单一标本，但乳齿象属在萨扎克的出现，不仅是土耳其晚中新世地层中该属的首次报道，同时也是西亚地区的首次记录。近期中国晚中新世地层中也确认了乳齿象属的存在，因此位于亚洲西部边缘的萨扎克遗址出土的乳齿象类化石记录，不仅填补了该属在欧亚大陆晚中新世地层中的稀少记录空白，更为晚中新世时期欧洲与东亚之间长鼻类的古生物地理交流提供了又一项实证依据。
