[The fossil record of the Eurasian Neogene insectivores (Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha, Mammalia) : Part I / L.W. van den Hoek Ostende, C.S. Doukas and J.W.F. Reumer (editors)]: Bulgaria

Introduction Research on Bulgarian fossil small mammals had a relatively late start and it was researchers from neighbouring countries who published the first few studies. The first fossil shrew, Crocidura sp., was mentioned by Jakubowski & Kraszewski (1972). It was found in the southeastern part of Bulgaria at Sarafovo, a locality of probably Pliocene age. A decade later, Rzebik-Kowalska (1982) and Horáček (1982a, b) described shrews and moles from Late Pleistocene localities. Then, in 1984, one of us (VP) started to study fossil insectivores from his country. The majority of Bulgarian fossil insectivores are Pleistocene (Popov, 1988,1989,1994b, 2000) and are not further considered herein. Pliocene insectivores are known from three localities, elaborated during the late 1980s and 1990s. There are no Miocene finds so far. The oldest Bulgarian insectivores come from the Early Pliocene (MN14b) lacustrine deposits of Dorkovo. The paper describing material from this locality (Thomas et al., 1986) contains only a preliminary list of insectivores, which was prepared by C.G. Rümke. A recent revision of the material (Popov, herein) reveals that Mygalinia sp. should be eliminated from the list; a revised list of the Dorkovo fauna is presented herein. The other two localities are karst fissure fillings; Muselievo (Popov, 1994a, 2004b) and Varshets (Popov, 2001, 2003, 2004a). Given the paucity of localities, the list of Bulgarian Neogene fossil insectivores is still rather incomplete when compared to other European countries. All the material listed in this paper is stored at the Institute of Zoology of the Bul