分类: 生物学 >> 动物学 提交时间: 2017-11-07 合作期刊: 《古脊椎动物学报》
摘要: A new skull of Urmiatherium intermedium (Bovidae, Artiodactyla) from the Linxia Basin, Gansu Province is described here. U. intermedium is a large Late Miocene bovid with an odd-looking horn apparatus, consisting of a pair of degenerate, closely situated horn-cores, and a large area of exostoses on the frontal and the parietal bones. Plenty of skulls, teeth, and bone fragments of U. intermedium have been reported from North China, but the skull to be described is the first discovery from the Linxia Basin, expanding the geographic distribution of U. intermedium to the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Although Urmiatherium is generally thought to be closely related to Plesiaddax, Hezhengia, Tsaidamotherium, and some other Late Miocene “ovibovines”, the phylogenetic position of Urmiatherium is still in debate. The distribution of Urmiatherium is wide, spanning from Iran to North China. Urmiatherium seldom accompanies with other Late Miocene “ovibovines” in North China, but is accompanied by other bovids like Sinotragus.
分类: 生物学 >> 动物学 提交时间: 2017-11-07 合作期刊: 《古脊椎动物学报》
摘要: Mammut is the terminal taxon of the proboscidean group Mammutidae, which survived to the Late Pleistocene. Although this genus was widely distributed in the Pliocene of Eurasia and the Pleistocene of North America, little is known about its early evolution. Here, we report on Mammut cf. M. obliquelophus from the Upper Miocene of northern China based on new fossil material, including an almost complete juvenile cranium and other remains, which show many primitive features within Mammutidae and clearly demonstrate the morphological evolution of Mammut. The strongly laterally expanded lateral wing of the occiput and the presence of basal constriction of the incisive fossa display cranial similarity between Mammut cf. M. obliquelophus and both Eozygodon morotoensis and Choerolophodon guangheensis, early representatives of the Mammutidae and Choerolophodontidae, respectively, indicating the close relationship between these two groups: both of them are located at the basal phylogenetic positions in Elephantimorpha. This result is further confirmed by a cladistic analysis.