The aberrant hamster Melissiodon (Cricetidae, Rodentia) from the early Miocene of Echzell and other German and French localities

Melissiodon is a rare cricetid with a long stratigraphic range, present from the Oligocene until the Miocene, only found in western and central Europe except some specimens recovered in Anatolia. What makes Melissiodon special is its unique dental and mandible morphology that has led to many questions regarding its relationship to other cricetid genera and its type of diet. In this work, we have studied new material attributed to Melissiodon from the German localities Echzell (MN4) and Petersbuch (MN3 and MN4), and from the French locality Beaulieu (MN3). Moreover, we compared these specimens with the already published material from other localities across western and central Europe during the early Miocene (MN3 and MN4). In conclusion, the studied specimens and the comparison with other material from different European localities allow us to ascribe this new material as Melissiodon dominans, a widely dispersed species across Europe during the early Miocene.This publication is part of project I+D+i PID2020-117289GBI00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/. It is also funded by the NSP (National Scholarship program of Slovak Republic for the Support of Mobility of University Researchers, ID 33758) to S.J.V. and by the Bolin Center for Climate Research, Stockholm University (RA6 grant) to T.M.