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Insectivores (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla) are today a rather successful mammalian order, living almost worldwide in a large variety of habitats. The present chapter focuses on the review of the fossil record of Eulipotyphla in Greece, which starts in the late Oligocene. The fossil remains are isolated dental elements (more rarely postcranial elements), revealed in 47 localities, belonging to the three extant eulipotyphlan families present in Greece also today, Erinaceidae (five genera), Talpidae (six genera) and Soricidae (13 genera), and also the extinct families Dimylidae (one genus), Heterosoricidae (two genera), and Plesiosoricidae (one genus). Eight species which are still recognized have been described from Greek Neogene localities (the erinaceids Galerix symeonidisi, Parasorex kostakii, Schizogalerix macedonica, the talpids Myxomygale engesseri, Desmanella dubia, and the soricids Heterosorex ruemkeae, Amblycoptus jessiae, Deinsdorfia kerkhoffi), while three others are now considered junior synonyms of taxa described from elsewhere (Desmanodon meuleni, Galerix atticus, Dibolia dekkersi). |
