Pliocene vertebrate locality of Çalta, Ankara, Turkey. 4. Rodentia and Lagomorpha

The Çalta vertebrate locality has yielded a rich fauna which contains nine species of rodents and one lagomorph. Eight rodent species had been described in detail in a previous paper (Sen 1977). The present paper describes new material and provides some remarks on the systematic and phylogenetic relationships of these taxa in the light of recent knowledge on the systematics of related groups. Rodents are dominated in number of individuals by a gerbil Pseudomeriones tchaltaensis and a spalacid Pliospalax macoveii. This paper also describes the Çalta lagomorph which is represented in the material by more than one hundred specimens. The Çalta lagomorph belongs to a new taxon of Ochotonidae, Ochotonoma anatolica n.g. n.sp. Its affinities with other taxa, as well as the systematics of some genera and species of Ochotonidae are discussed. In addition, this note presents a historical review of research undertaken at Çalta since its discovery in the 1950s.