Excavation area of Can Argilera in CN (Pit 7/8). The exact place where the fossil specimen was found is indicated with a black spot.

The most complete Pliocene mole fossil ever found in Europe reveals an unexpected evolutionary link to modern North American species.

A team of researchers from the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP-CERCA) has identified and described Vulcanoscaptor ninoti (“the Camp dels Ninots volcano digger”), a previously unknown genus and species of Pliocene mole. The fossil was unearthed at the Camp dels Ninots palaeontological site (Caldes de Malavella, Girona), one of the most important locations for studying the fauna that inhabited southern Europe more than 3.5 million years ago.

The specimen preserves the mandible with a complete dentition, part of the torso, and several bones from both the forelimbs and hindlimbs, many of them still in anatomical connection. This exceptional state of preservation is extremely rare in small mammals such as moles and makes this specimen one of the oldest and most complete ever found in Europe.