Additions to the early Miocene herpetofauna of Weisenau (Germany): urodeles and squamates from a rediscovered historical collection in Italy

A small sample of fossil vertebrae of amphibians and reptiles found in the historical collection of the Museum of Geology and Palaeontology of the University of Torino is here described. The fossils most likely originate from the same deposits as the old collections from Weisenau, in the Mainz Basin. In spite of the small number of remains, at least five taxa are recognized: one urodele (Salamandra sansaniensis), one lizard (Pseudopus sp.), and three snakes (Falseryx petersbuchi, Zamenis kohfidischi, and Vipera antiqua). Records of only one of these, the viper, were already properly published in previous accounts on the site, whereas the urodele and lizard were only mentioned in literature, which we are now able to confirm. The other two snakes are identified in the early Miocene of Weisenau for the first time. For at least four of the identified taxa, the Weisenau occurrence is the oldest known. This small sample supports the hypothesis that the early Miocene of Europe was an important step towards establishing its modern herpetofauna, soon after the Oligocene/Miocene transition.