Early Pleistocene White-toothed Shrew Crocidura kornfeldi (Lipotyphla, Soricidae) from Crimea.

The remains of the white-toothed shrew Crocidura kornfeldi Kormos, 1934 (one skull fragment with almost complete dentition, the fragmental rostral part of a skull with the left upper incisor, a maxillary fragment, five mandibular fragments and an isolated upper incisor) from the Lower Pleistocene deposits of the Taurida cave in the central Crimea (Belogorsk district, Zuya village) are described. This earliest European species of the genus Crocidura was quite common in the Early Pleistocene of Central Europe and the Mediterranean; for the first time, it is described from Crimea and the entire Eastern Europe.

First record of Mylagaulid rodents (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Miocene of Eastern Siberia (Olkhon Island, Baikal Lake, Irkutsk Region, Russia).

A new genus and species of rodent, Lamugaulus olkhonensis, belonging to the subfamily Promylagaulinae of the family Mylagaulidae, is described on the basis of isolated teeth from the Khalagay Formation of the Lower Miocene Tagay locality (Olkhon island, Lake Baikal, Irkutsk Region). This is the first record of mylagaulids in Eastern Siberia, significantly expanding the data on the distribution of this mainly North American group of rodents in Asia and showing its presence outside the Central Asian arid zone.

[Supraspecies relationships in the subfamily (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Arvicolinae): unexpexted result of nuclear genes analysis].

Phylogenetic analysis of supraspecies relationships in one of the most young and species rich group of myomorph rodents - subfamily Arvicolinae was carried out on the base of two nuclear genes. Results have shown that mole-voles - Ellobiusini, steppe voles - (Lagurini) and grey voles (Arvicolini) are sister groups. This divergence is the most late, third wave of radiation within the family. The sister clade to this group is the tribe of red-back voles - Myodini (=Clethrionomini) - "second radiation". The order of divergence for earliest radiation remains still unresolved (Ondatrini, Prometheomyini, Dicrostonychini, Lemmini). New data on the close relationships of mole voles, grey voles and steppe voles are unexpected one and contradict to the conventional views. The latter ideas on the significant ancientry and separation of Ellobiusini from all other voles is based on extreme simplicity of their rooted molars and very peculiar structure of the skull and postcranial skeleton. However, many of these characters most likely indicate on significant degree of adaptation to the subterranean life and have no phylogenetic signal.