From the Late MioceneвЂ“Lower Pliocene site of CalГі den Rafalino (Bover et al. The fossil record of this faunal complex is well known for the Island of Mallorca (Alcover et al. This faunal complex, which is well documented on Mallorca and Menorca, contains the typical Plio-Pleistocene taxa including the bovid Myotragus, the dormouse Hypnomys and the shrew Nesiotites (Alcover et al. The last episode is more recent and its origin is usually associated with the Messinian salinity crisis (MoyГ -SolГ et al. On Menorca Island this episode is represented by one karstic locality containing the lagomorph Gymnesicolagus and the glirid Margaritamys (as well as other lower vertebrates (BailГіn et al. The presence of larger mammals is only testified by indeterminable bone fragments. Several lacustrine localities on Mallorca provided evidence of an unbalanced fauna composed of a lagomorph ( Gymnesicolagus gelaberti) and three glirids ( Carbomys sacaresi, Margaritamys llulli and Peridiromys ordinasi) (Mein and Adrover 1982). The oldest episode of Miocene insular fauna has been identified only on the Islands of Mallorca and Menorca. 2007, 2014), the fossil records of the Pytiusic Islands are very scarce, including only those of some small mammals, birds and lower vertebrates (MoyГ -SolГ et al. 1985 Agusti and MoyГ -SolГ 1990 Bover et al. Although we have an important fossil record from the Gymnesic Islands (MoyГ -SolГ and Pons-MoyГ 1979 Alcover et al. However, our knowledge on Balearic Islands faunal diversity is unbalanced. 1985) and the second during the Messinian salinity crisis at the end of the Miocene (MoyГ -SolГ et al. The first was in the Middle Miocene (LanghianвЂ“Serravalian) (Mein and Adrover 1982 Adrover et al. A general consensus exists that these Islands were settled by continental taxa, developing into endemic insular taxa, on at least two occasions during the Miocene. This archipelago comprises two groups of Islands, the Gymnesics (Mallorca and Menorca) and the Pytiusic Islands (Eivissa and Formentera). The Balearic Islands (Spain) form a small archipelago of continental Islands located in the Western Mediterranean sea, off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula ( Figure 1). moralesi would be close to the ancestral continental pattern of the endemic Neogene-Quaternary caprine lineage that colonised the western Mediterranean Islands during the Messinian salinity crisis. The morphology of the dentition and postcranial is characteristic of Caprini and similar to that of the Myotragus/ Nesogoral group. suggest that this taxon probably represents the first phase of isolation.

The few derived insular adaptations of Ebusia n. However, the metapodials show an intermediate degree of shortening between continental bovids and Myotragus species and other insular ruminants. The long bones (in particular the tibia) are rather slender, similar to those of continental bovids. It has a long and complex lower p2 and upper P2 and P3, long premolar series, non-hypsodont incisors and a moderate degree of hypsodonty of the check teeth. This new taxon is the smallest caprine currently described and shows primitive, continental-like complete dentition. We describe the first endemic large mammal from the Neogene of the Island Eivissa (Balearic Islands, Spain), a new genus and species of an endemic insular bovid, Ebusia n.

Smallest caprine