Table of Content

15 September 2015, Volume 53 Issue 3

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Tapirus yunnanensis from Shuitangba, a terminal Miocene hominoid site in Zhaotong, Yunnan Province of China 

JI Xue-ping   Nina G. JABLONSKI   TONG Hao-wen   Denise F. SU    Jan Ove R. EBBESTAD    Liu Cheng-wu YU Teng-Song

2015, 53(3):  177-192. 

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The fossil tapirid records of Late Miocene and Early Pliocene were quite poor in China as before known. The recent excavations of the terminal Miocene hominoid site (between 6 and 6.5 Ma) at Shuitangba site, Zhaotong in Yunnan Province resulted in the discovery of rich tapir fossils, which include left maxilla with P2-M2 and mandibles with complete lower dentitions. The new fossil materials can be referred to Tapirus yunnanensis, which represents a quite small species of the genus Tapirus. But T. yunnanensis is slightly larger than another Late Miocene species T. hezhengensisfrom Gansu, northwest China, both of which are remarkably smaller than the Plio-Pleistocene Tapirus species in China. The new fossils provided more information to define the species T. yunnanensis more precisely. Yunnan can be regarded as one of the centers of tapir evolution during the Mid-Late Miocene period, as quite a number of Mid-Late Miocene tapir fossils have been recovered in several localities of Yunnan, which include Xiaolongtan, Yuanmou, Lufeng, Zhaotong and others. Based on the measurements of tooth size, the late Cenozoic tapirs were generally getting larger gradually through time in China, which means the tooth sizes coincide well with their geological ages, the later the larger, and all the Mid-Late Miocene tapirs are exclusively small-sized; thus, the tooth size of fossil tapirs in China is likely to have some significance in age estimation. By contrary, both the dwarf and the normal-sized or larger-sized tapirs were discovered from Mid-Late Miocene strata in Europe and North America. 

A mandible of Leptobos (Bovidae, Artiodactyla) from the Lower Pleistocene of Longdan, Gansu, China, and evidence of feline predatory strategy  --Addition to the Early Pleistocene Longdan Mammalian Fauna

LI Yi-Kun 

2015, 53(3):  193-205. 

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 A completely preserved mandible of Leptobos from the Early Pleistocene mammalian fauna of Longdan, Gansu Province, China, is described here. The mandible has a long thin mandibular body, and a long mandibular diastema. The premolar row is short. The mandibular body forms an obtuse angle of about 120° with the mandibular ramus, while the angle of the mandible is nearly 90°. The paraconid and parastylid are well developed, and the metaconid extends posteriorly, not connecting with the paraconid in p3 or p4. The main cusps of the molars are rounded, and ectostylids (basal pillars) present in m1-m3. The metastylid of m2 is weak, and the preprotocristids of m2-m3 and posthypocristid of m3 are anteroposteriorly constricted. Skulls of Leptobos brevicornis were previously discovered in the same area, and the new specimen is also attributable to this species. Wounds preserved in the anterior part of the mandible are interpreted as resulted from attack by a feline predator, indicating the predatory behavior similar to that of living big cats, using muzzle clamps to suffocate preys, may have already occurred in the Early Pleistocene.  

An extraordinary pattern of ruminant molars and associated cervids from the Pleistocene of Wushan, Central China 

DONG Wei      CHEN Shao-kun 

2015, 53(3):  207-218. 

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Selenodont cheek teeth are diagnostic characteristics of ruminants, in which the upper molars are usually composed of four selenodont main cusps. During a local housing construction at Yantouxi near the Longgupo Site at Miaoyu Town of Wushan County in Chongqing Municipality of Central China, a mandibular fragment with extraordinary molars composed of five main selenodont cusps was uncovered with association of the Pleistocene Muntiacus sp. andCervus (Rusa) unicolor. The morphological study shows that it is a new pattern of selenodont molars different from five-cusped upper molars of some tylopods such as anthracotheres and xiphodontids from the Paleogene as well as cainotheriids from the Oligocene to Miocene. The fifth selenodont cusp is interpreted as an overdevelopment of cingulum around the anterior lingual base of the protocone. The taxonomic status of the animal is placed temporarily in Muntiacinae as Muntiacus ? huangi sp. nov. 

Revision and supplementary note on Miocene sciurid fauna of Sihong, China 

QIU Zhu-Ding 

2015, 53(3):  219-237. 

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The Sihong sciurid fauna, a relatively diverse squirrel assemblage found in Jiangsu, China in 1983, is restudied. On the basis of the updated knowledge of Miocene sciurids, the specimens from the Early Miocene Xiacaowan Formation are reexamined and additional descriptions provided, and definitions of the new genera and species previously established are amended. A new genusHeterotamias is named based on the material previously assigned toEutamias; Shuanggouia formerly placed in Pteromyinae is here considered to be a member of Sciurinae due to its generalized sciurid dental pattern; some specimens previously referred to Shuanggouia lui are now identified with Palaeosciurus on account of their differences from the holotype of the species. Five species,Palaeosciurus jiangi, Heterotamias sihongensis, Plesiosciurus sinensis, Shuanggouia lui and Parapetaurista tenurugosa, are recognized in this restudy. Among them, Parapetaurista shows similarities to the Middle-Late Miocene Miopetaurista in dental pattern, but their systematic relationship remains uncertain. The Sihong squirrels appear to represent a sciurid fauna dominated by chipmunk-like animals and restricted to eastern China. 

New material of the Eocene marine bird Kievornis Averianovet al., 1990 and a reassessment of the affinities of this taxon  

Evgeniy ZVONOK ,  Gerald MAYR,  Leonid GOROBETS 

2015, 53(3):  238-244. 

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New specimens of Eocene bird Kievornis Averianov et al., 1990 are described. It is shown that this taxon existed in the Middle Eocene of the Tethys Sea, from the early Lutetian to the early Bartonian, and in an area spanning at least from Kiev in central Ukraine to Ikovo in the eastern part of the country. We tentatively refer Kievornis to the Procellariiformes. However, although the taxon exhibits features characteristic of the Procellariiformes, it also, and perhaps plesiomorphically, lacks some derived features of these birds. 

New hadrosauroid material from the Upper Cretaceous Majiacun Formation of Hubei Province, central China  

TAN Qing-wei   XING Hai   HU Yong-guo   TAN Lin   XU Xing 

2015, 53(3):  245-264. 

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The Xichuan Basin is situated along the northwestern border between Henan and Hubei provinces in central China, and includes a thick accumulation of Upper Cretaceous sediments. Here we report and describe some indeterminate hadrosauroid material on the genus level, which was retrieved from the middle Majiacun Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in the southwestern area of the Xichuan Basin, northwest Hubei. The hadrosauroid remains occur with scattered dinosaur eggs at the same horizon. The majority of the bones may come from the late nestling and early juvenile stages. This condition could be best explained by the geographic segregation of the nestlings and early juveniles from the herd consisting of older individuals, as reported in some hadrosaurids. A minimum of two hadrosauroid taxa are identified through direct morphological comparisons: one may represent a relatively derived non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroid, and the other probably pertains to Hadrosaurinae. Considering the younger age of North American hadrosaurines, the presence of hadrosaurine material within the middle Santonian middle portion of the Majiacun Formation provides new evidence for the Asian origins of both Hadrosaurinae and Hadrosauridae.