Table of Content

15 March 2018, Volume 56 Issue 1

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New findings of galeaspids (Agnatha) from the Lower Devonian of Qujing, Yunnan, China

LIU Yu-Hai, GAI Zhi-Kun, ZHU Min

2018, 56(1):  1-15. 

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New findings of galeaspids (Agnatha) including Altigibbaspis huiqingae gen. et sp. nov., an indeterminate polybranchiaspid, Eugaleaspis changi, and Nanpanaspis microculus are described from the lower part of the Xishancun Formation (early Lochkovian, Early Devonian) near the northeast entrance of Liaokuo Park, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, China. The Polybranchiaspis-like new genus is characterized by a blade-like median dorsal ridge on the dorsal side of head-shield. The morphological disparity of the median dorsal ridge and spine in galeaspids suggests that these structures functioned more than providing a hydrodynamic stability. We assume that a high upright and compressed spine may render galeaspid fishes an apparently larger size as seen by a predator, and a blade-like median dorsal ridge may accomplish a defense against the claws of large sea scorpions.Nanpanaspis is peculiar in bearing two short laterally projecting processes on each side of the head-shield, and its phylogenetic relationship is discussed based on different interpretations on the homology of these processes. Considering the unique morphology of Nanpanaspis, and its early occurrence among the Huananaspiformes, we assign Nanpanaspis in the monogeneric family Nanpanaspidae to represent an early branch of the Huananaspiformes. 

High-precision temporal calibration of Middle Triassic vertebrate biostratigraphy: U-Pb zircon constraints for the Sinokannemeyeria Fauna andYonghesuchus

　LIU Jun, Jahandar RAMEZANI, LI Lu, SHANG Qing-Hua, XU Guang-Hui, WANG Yan-Yin, YANG Jia-Sheng　

2018, 56(1):  16-24. 

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Tetrapod assemblages provide a useful means for global correlation of the terrestrial Triassic sedimentary deposits, but currently no reliable temporal framework has been achieved for the Middle Triassic tetrapod assemblages. Here we report U-Pb zircon chemical abrasion–thermal ionization mass spectrometry dates for five volcanic ashes interbedded with vertebrate fossils from the Ermaying and Tongchuan formations of China. Our results support a late Anisian age for the Sinokannemeyeria Fauna and an early Ladinian age for YonghesuchusFauna. It is now possible, through biostratigraphic correlation, to provide accurate ages to other Middle Triassic successions such as the Upper Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Karoo of South Africa, the Eryosuchus fauna of the Donguz Suite of Russia and the Karamayi Formation of Xinjiang, China. The base of Anisian (Lower/Middle Triassic boundary) should lie below the base of the Ermaying Formation in the Ordos Basin. 

A new species of Brontotheriidae from the Middle Eocene of Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China

Li Shuo

2018, 56(1):  25-44. 

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 A new species of large Irdinmanhan brontothere, Epimanteoceras mae sp. nov., is described based on an incomplete skull which was collected from the Üqbulak Formation of Sangequan site, Junggar Basin of XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region. The new specimen can be assigned to the genus Epimanteoceras by the largesuperorbital processes, the broad frontal bone, the shallow central fossae on the molars, and the absence of the anterolingual cingular cusp on molars and the hypocone on M3. E. mae is characterized by the slightly laterally bowed zygomatic arches, the medially arched parasagittal ridges, the posteromedially angled external auditory pseudomeatus, and the prominent occipital pillar processes. E. mae and E. formosus are closely related. It is uncertain whether E. mae or E. formosus forms the sister group to Brontotheriina, but both of them are the basal group of the latter in the phylogenetic analysis. They are both closed to the Irdinmanhan brontothere Protitan grangeri from Nei Mongol but much primitive than Aktautitan hippopotamopus from Kazakhstan. The discovery of E. mae in Sangequan indicates that the age of Üqbulak Formation is Middle Eocene, and earlier than that of Kyzylbulak Formation bearing A. hippopotamopus in Kazakhstan. Moreover, the discovery of E. mae in Xinjiang expanded the distribution of the genus Epimanteoceras, which was only found in Nei Mongol previously.  

Paleoecology of Cenozoic rhinos from northwest China: a stable isotope perspective

Dana BIASATTI, WANG Yang,  DENG Tao

2018, 56(1):  45-68. 

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The diets and environments of fossil rhinocerotoids from the Linxia Basin, Gansu, China,ranging in age from 25 to 2.5 Ma, were reconstructed based on bulk and serial carbon (C) and oxygen (O) isotope analyses of tooth enamel. The results support many previous hypotheses inferred from dentition and cranial and limb morphology and offer new insight on the paleoecology of some genera. The isotopic results support the following previous hypotheses: the Late Oligocene rhinoParaceratherium inhabited a forested environment, and the coexisting rhino Allacerops lived in a relatively open habitat and had a less specialized diet; the Middle Miocene Hispanotherium grazed in open territory, whereas the contemporaneous Alicornops had a more generalized diet in a forested environment; and the Late Miocene rhino Parelasmotherium grazed in an open steppe habitat. The isotope data indicate that the rhinos Acerorhinus and Dicerorhinus inhabited open steppe environments, inconsistent with previous inferences that these two rhinos dwelled in forested environments. The isotopic results are not conclusive concerning the habitat of Iranotherium, but support previous hypotheses that this rhino was a specialized C3 grazer. The results also suggest thatChilotherium was a forest-dweller throughout much of the Late Miocene, but occupied a more open environment by the end of the Late Miocene. Additionally, the results are consistent with previous hypotheses that the Pliocene rhino Shansirhinus and the Pleistocene rhino Coelodonta were grazers in open habitats. Finally, the C isotope data support that all rhinos in this study were pure C3 feeders,confirming that C4 grasses were not an important component of the plant biomass in the Linxia Basin from 25 to 2.5 Ma. 

New fossils of Bos primigenius (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Nihewan and Longhua of Hebei, China

TONG Hao-wen, CHEN Xi, ZHANG Bei, WANG Fa-Gang

2018, 56(1):  69-92. 

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The new fossils of Bos primigenius in this study came from two regions in Hebei Province: Nihewan Basin (one partial skull with right horn-core and one humerus) and Longhua County (one humerus, one tibia, 2 calcanea and 3 astragali). The humerus from Nihewan has a total length of 457.3 mm, which almost represents the largest aurochs individual which has a two-meter shoulder height. The biggest humerus and other big cranial specimens in northern China can be correlated with the European counterparts of late Middle Pleistocene, and they should be contemporary. The smaller sized limb-bones from Longhua were unearthed from loess deposits, which can be attributed to Late Pleistocene. The current knowledge shows that aurochs may have arrived in China earlier than Late Pleistocene, because its associated taxa, e.g. Canis lupus, Panthera tigris, Mammuthus primigenius,Equus caballus, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Sus scrofa, Camelus knoblochi, Cervus elaphus, Alces alces and Bison priscus have appeared as early as late Middle Pleistocene or even earlier in Eastern Europe and Northern Eurasia. Furthermore, new numerical dating results show that the aurochs’ occurrences from some sites in China can be traced back to Middle Pleistocene. This study proposes that the larger sized aurochs should be of a late Middle Pleistocene age. In China, aurochs fossils mainly occur in the northern part and the transitional zone along the Huaihe River, but are absent in southern China and Southeast Asia, which resulted in the hypothesis of “Central Asian Corridor” through which aurochs reached China. In recent years as more bovini fossils were recovered in Africa, the Bos phylogeny was proposed, which assumed that the evolution of Bos lineage took place in Africa rather than in Eurasia as thought before, and the earliest ancestor of B. primigenius is Pelorovis turkanensis, finally the genus Bos dispersed into Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The present authors think that the African Pelorovis species are too different from the Bos lineage in morphology; on the contrary, the early Bosspecies from Siwalik in South Asia resembles B. primigenius very much. In China, most of the B. primigeniusfossils were recovered from fluvio-lacustrine deposits in North China Plain, Loess Plateau and Song-Nen Plain, whereas few of them were from loess deposit, which means that the aurochs fossils could be employed as an indicator of warm climate and wet environment.