Three million years of “Terror-Shrew” ( Dinosorex , Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) in the Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Barcelona, Spain)

For the first time, the heterosoricid genus Dinosorex from the Iberian Peninsula has been studied in detail. Dental morphology and measurements match the original description of the species Dinosorex grycivensis Rzebik-Kowalska and Topachevsky, 1997. This is the first time that the species is reported in southwestern Europe. Biostratigraphically, the last occurrences of Dinosorex in the Vallès-Penedès basin coincide with the transition from early to late Vallesian, together with the first occurrences of the murid Progonomys, at about 9.6 Ma. This is close in time to the estimated moment of final extinction for the genus. From an evolutionary point of view, it is remarkable that in the more than forty localities in the Vallès-Penedès Basin, spanning three million years, there are no apparent morphological changes. Notably, to date, no occurrences have been reported in central Europe that could link the Ukrainian and Iberian assemblages biogeographically. These results clearly highlight the need of revision of other European forms to place the Iberian finds in a broader scenario in order to fully comprehend the factors driving the evolution and ultimately extinction of the “terror-shrews”.