about 3 mm. The trochlea—a surface on the body of the bone that articulates with the tibia (lower leg bone)—is not large and pulley-like, as in talpids. There is a small perforation on the lower side of the body. This perforation is larger in Ameghino's other supposed talpids, and Trouessart suggested on the basis of this feature that the internal parts of the toes were reduced in Veratalpa. Distribution Veratalpa is known only from the locality of Vieux Collonges near Lyon in southeastern France; Ameghino knew this locality as "Mont-Ceindre". This rich fissure filling locality has yielded thousands of fossils and is currently dated to the early-middle Miocene boundary, around 17 million years ago (MN 4/5 in the MN zonation). As Veratalpa is known from a single astragalus, Ameghino considered it to be rare. He distinguished six talpid species among the astragali, but according to Hutchison only Ameghino's species F (which was assigned to Talpidae with a query) is really a talpid. References Literature cited Ameghino, F. 1905. La perforation astragalienne sur quelques mammifères du Miocène moyen de France. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, series 3, 8:41–58. Hutchison, J.H. 1974. Notes on type specimens of European Miocene Talpidae and a tentative classification of old world Tertiary Talpidae (Insectivora: Mammalia) (subscription required). Geobios 7(3):211–256. Ivanov M. 2000. Snakes of the lower/middle Miocene transition at Vieux Collonges (Rhône, France), with comments on the colonisation of western Europe by colubroids. Geodiversitas 22(4):559–588. McKenna, M.C. and Bell, S.K. 1997. Classification of Mammals: Above the species level. New York: Columbia University Press, 631 pp. Mein, P. and Freudenthal, M. 1981. Les Cricetidae (Mammalia, Rodentia) du Néogène Moyen de Vieux-Collonges. Partie 2: Cricetodontinae incertae sedis, Melissiodontinae, Platacanthomyinae, et Anomalomyinae. Scripta Geologica 60:1–11. Trouessart, E. 1906. Mammiféres. Revue critique de paléozoologie 1:8–17. Miocene mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1905