New insights into the genus Byzantinia (Cricetodontinae, Rodentia) from the Late Miocene of Lebanon

Byzantinia is a genus of extinct cricetodontine rodents with a distribution centered in the eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon) and extending into Romania. It originated during the Middle Miocene in Anatolia and became extinct at the end of the Miocene, its last representatives being Byzantinia pikermiensis , B. uenayae , and B. hellenicus . Several isolated molars attributed to B. pikermiensis and B. hellenicus have been recovered from a newly discovered fossiliferous locality in Lebanon (Zahleh 16). This material provides new insights into the occlusal morphology of the genus and allows the identification of several evolutionary trends. The co-occurrence of B. pikermiensis and B. hellenicus suggests an age of 8.9–7.5 Ma for Zahleh 16. Given that the earliest record of Byzantinia in Lebanon dates to ca. 10.9–10 Ma, these findings indicate that the presence of the genus in this area persisted for more than 1 million years.