A new species of Deinsdorfia (Soricidae, Insectivora, Mammalia) from the Pliocene of Spain

A new species of Deinsdorfia is defined using new material coming from the karstic fissure infilling of Almenara-Casablanca 4 (Castelló, Spain), which shows important differences with the rest of the previously known species of the genus. The definition of a new species is supported by the characters found in extra material coming from the localities of Valdeganga, in the Albacete Province (Spain). The stratigraphical occurrence of this genus of pigmented-toothed shrews reinforces the idea of the Iberian Peninsula as a sink area during the Pliocene, where some Central-European soricids expanded their distribution. Most of those migrations or distributional expansions coincide with moments of climatic changes in the northern hemisphere. © 2008 Académie des sciences.