Description des rongeurs Pliocènes de la faune du Mont-Hélène (Pyrénées-Orientales, France), nouveau jalon entre les faunes de Perpignan (Serrat-d'en-Vacquer) et de Sète.

Jean-Pierre Aguilar, Marc Calvet and Jacques Michaux

The Mont-Hélène's fauna [Pyrénées-Orientales, France], includes 15 species of rodents with a new one, Occitanomys montheleni n. sp. among the 9 species of the Murids which are listed. The uncommon Cricetid, Blancomys neglectus, is well represented in the fauna. Peculiarities of the population referred to Slephanomys cf. donnezaniare discussed. The locality a fissure filling may be the oldest one of Tabianian age known in Southern France. The diversity of the Murids gives evidence of a subtropical climate and of a diversified environment which may be linked to the spreading of the coastal plain following the filling up of the Roussillon Neogene Basin.