Not so endemic? Occurrence of Asiatic burrowing rodents (zokors) in the southern Fore-Urals localities of the Early and Middle Pleistocene

Currently, extant zokors (Myospalacidae) are Asian endemics, but their Pleistocene fossils indicate a wider distribution. These remains are important for understanding the evolution and palaeobiogeography of the group, yet they have not been studied in accordance with modern concepts of zokor phylogeny. In this paper, zokors from three Fore-Ural localities (European part of Russia) are studied. From the European Early Pleistocene localities of Akkulaevo and Simbugino, Sibirosiphneus sukhovi sp. nov. is described, which is conspecific with the zokor from the Western Siberian Early Pleistocene locality of Lebyazhie. The zokor from the European Middle Pleistocene Chui-Atasevo locality is identified as the species Myospalax myospalax. By some archaic traits, these specimens are identified as the chronosubspecies M. m. krukoveri, described from several Western Siberian Middle Pleistocene localities. The presence of the same species in the Fore-Urals and Western Siberian localities indicates short periods of territorial expansion of Sibirosiphneus – Myospalax lineage into European Russia. During these intervals, the range of the Western Siberian zokor species exceeded the present-day range of M. myospalax by more than three times. https://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9D8DCD17-4BD1-48E4-A0B7-F012A7A9C608