This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Villa, Andrea, Macaluso, Loredana, Mörs, Thomas (2024): Miocene and Pliocene amphibians from Hambach (Germany): New evidence for a late Neogene refuge in northwestern Europe. Palaeontologia Electronica (a 3) 27 (1): 1-56, DOI: 10.26879/1323, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.26879/1323
ABSTRACT
The Hambach lignite mine in northwestern Germany is a renowned fossil locality, which has yielded remains of several vertebrates dated back to the Middle Miocene and the Late Pliocene. Among these is a recently-described and peculiar proteid urodele, Euronecturus grogu, currently known only from the Middle Miocene level in Hambach. Here, we provide detailed descriptions and identifications of the remaining fossil amphibians (both urodeles and anurans) from the Hambach mine, in total identifying at least 12 Middle Miocene taxa (Cryptobranchidae indet., Palaeoproteus cf. miocenicus, E. grogu, Chelotriton sp., Lissotriton sp., Triturus sp., Latonia sp.,? Palaeobatrachidae indet., Pelobatidae indet., Hyla sp., Pelophylax sp., Rana sp.) and at least nine Late Pliocene ones (Palaeoproteus cf. miocenicus, Mioproteus cf. wezei, Lissotriton sp., Latonia sp., Palaeobatrachus eurydices, cf. Eopelobates sp., Hyla sp., Bufo gr. bufo, Ranidae indet.). The high diversity of amphibians in both Miocene and Pliocene levels at Hambach supports a very humid climate persisting in the area for most of the Neogene, possibly originating a refugium for these animals in northwestern Europe that persisted until the Late Pliocene (and possibly even the Early Pleistocene). Urodeles such as Palaeoproteus and Mioproteus and anurans such as Latonia, the palaeobatrachids, and possibly Eopelobates are all significant occurrences in such a northern latitude at the end of the Pliocene, a period when southward withdrawal of thermophilic animals as well as the first effects of a deteriorizing climate ultimately leading to the Quaternary glaciation had already started in the European continent.
Andrea Villa. Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP-CERCA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain. andrea.villa@icp.cat
Loredana Macaluso. Natural Sciences Collections, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Domplatz 4, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany. loredana.macaluso@zns.uni-halle.de
Thomas Mörs. Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, PO Box 50007, SE 10405, Stockholm, Sweden; Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, Stockholm, Sweden.
thomas.moers@nrm.se
Villa A, Macaluso L, Mörs T, felipe (2024). Miocene and Pliocene amphibians from Hambach (Germany): New evidence for a late Neogene refuge in northwestern Europe. Plazi.org taxonomic treatments database. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/e5mg5t accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-06-14.
