No place for Pliocene tourists with Ockham’s razor in the pocket: Comment on Crespo et al. (2023)

Abstract

Crespo et al. (2023) have recently described a new genus and species called Europotamogale melkarti, purportedly an afrosoricid ‘tourist genus’ coming from central Africa to Spain during the Pliocene. The occurrence of this mysterious animal has been justified by means of a migration of thousands of kilometers leaving no other fossil evidence all along such an incredible journey. According to our analyses, this ‘tourist genus’ is surrounded by many inconsistent facts, which lead us to the conclusion that Europotamogale should not have been erected as a new taxon because its holotype (and only element yet known) belongs to a very different animal. We alternatively propose that this fossil is indeed a fragment of a tooth of a water-mole of the genus Archaeodesmana, which is a much more parsimonious hypothesis.