[The fossil record of the Eurasian Neogene insectivores (Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha, Mammalia) : Part I / L.W. van den Hoek Ostende, C.S. Doukas and J.W.F. Reumer (editors)]: Romania

Introduction The oldest descriptions of Romanian fossil insectivores date from the 1930s. At that time, I. Simionescu described two Early Pliocene localities, Măluşteni (in 1930) and Bereşti (in 1932), both containing a rich mammal fauna. Among the insectivores, Simionescu identified such genera as Erinaceus, Talpa, Myogale and Sorex. After the Second World War the palaeontologists C. Rădulescu, P.-M. Samson, E. Terzea, M.C. Feru, T. Jurcsák and E. Ştiucãpublished papers on the insectivores. Rădulescu and Samson described and commented upon numerous faunal complexes and species from Romania, spanning the time scale from the Middle Miocene to the end of the Pleistocene (Rădulescu & Samson 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1995a, b, 2001; Rădulescu et al., 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998; Samson & Rădulescu, 1973). They also described two new species of Talpidae (Rădulescu & Samson, 1989; Rădulescu et al, 1989). Terzea studied the Early Pliocene localities of Ciuperceni 1 and 2 (1980,1997) and many other younger ones, but most extensively the Betfia Karstic Complex dated to the Early to Middle Pleistocene. Recently, eleven Pliocene insectivore faunas from Romania were revised by RzebikKowalska (2002). Still, the fossil insectivores are little known in Romania. So far only 20 named species of 18 genera (one hedgehog, nine moles, and ten shrews) were found. Among them four species of moles were described as new. The oldest (Middle Miocene, MN7/8) Romanian specimens come from the localities of Comăneşti 1 and Taut and belong to