FOSSIL IMPRINT • vol. 76 • 2020 • no. 1 • pp. 59–83 (formerly ACTA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE, Series B – Historia Naturalis) INDEPENDENT WATER VOLE (MIMOMYS SAVINI, ARVICOLA: RODENTIA, MAMMALIA) LINEAGES IN ITALY AND CENTRAL EUROPE FEDERICO MASINI1, LUTZ CHRISTIAN MAUL2,*, LAURA ABBAZZI3, DARIA PETRUSO1, ANDREA SAVORELLI3 1 Università di Palermo, Dipartimento di Geologia e Geodesia, Via Archirafi 18, I-90134 Palermo, Italy; e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected]. 2 Senckenberg Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology Weimar, Am Jakobskirchhof 4, D-99423 Weimar, Germany; e-mail:
[email protected]. 3 Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Via G. La Pira 4, I-50121 Firenze, Italy; e-mails:
[email protected],
[email protected]. * corresponding author Masini, F., Maul, L. C., Abbazzi, L., Petruso, D., Savorelli, A. (2020): Independent water vole (Mimomys savini, Arvicola: Rodentia, Mammalia) lineages in Italy and Central Europe. – Fossil Imprint, 76(1): 59–83, Praha. ISSN 2533-4050 (print), ISSN 2533-4069 (on-line). Abstract: Water voles are important key fossils of the Quaternary. Given their wide distribution, regional differences were expected to exist in different areas. Early hints on possible independent evolutionary trends of water voles in Italy came from palaeontology and specifically from the comparison of enamel differentiation (SDQ value) of the first lower molars between specimens from Italy and Germany. The data available at that time indicated that in the early Middle Pleistocene there were only minor enamel differences between first lower molars of water voles from these two geographical regions, whereas from the late Middle Pleistocene onwards, two lineages were clearly distinguished.