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palaeoecological information for Merycopotamus
stress the role of the Himalayan orogenesis
as a dispersal barrier and the impact of
a major global regression event on the evolution
of Indian Subcontinent faunas from the
Middle Miocene to the Late Pliocene.
2008010376
英 格 兰 始 新 世 早 期 一 新 的 Omomyid 及 其
古 生 物 地 理 意 义 = A New Microchoerine
Omomyid (Primates, Mammalia) From The
English Early Eocene And Its Palaeobiogeographical
Implications. ( 英 文 ). Hooker J J.
Palaeontology, 2007, 50(3): 739-756
A new genus and species of omomyid primate,
Melaneremia bryanti, is described from
the Early Eocene Blackheath Beds of Abbey
Wood, London, UK. It shares unique derived
characters with the European subfamily Microchoerinae
and is its most primitive member.
It is nevertheless more derived than the primitive
omomyid Teilhardina belgica from the
beginning of the European Eocene. Cladistic
analysis shows that the Microchoerinae are
sister group to a clade comprising subfamilies
Omomyinae and Anaptomorphinae, but excluding
Teilhardina belgica and T. asiatica,
which are stem omomyids. The Mammalian
Dispersal Event (MDE), which marks the beginning
of the Eocene (55·8 Ma), saw the dispersal
of primates, perissodactyls and artiodactyls
into the Northern Hemisphere. At this
time similar species of Teilhardina lived in
Europe, Asia and North America. The Abbey
Wood microchoerine lived about 1 million
years later. It co-occurs with non-primate species
identical or very similar to those that
lived in North America. The latter were
ground-dwellers, whereas the microchoerine
and others that show distinct differences from
North American relatives were tree-dwellers.
Land-bridges connected North America and
Europe via Greenland at the beginning of the
Eocene, but 2 million years later these had
been severed by submarine rifting. North
American species at Abbey Wood indicate
that a land connection still remained at
c. 55 Ma. However, the forest belt that must
have been continuous during the MDE to allow
tree-dwellers to disperse between the continents
is likely by this time to have been disrupted,
perhaps by volcanic eruption.
2008010377
澳 大 利 亚 昆 士 兰 岛 西 北 部 里 弗 斯 利 中 新 世
晚 期 沉 积 物 中 的 袋 熊 Warendja 一 新 种 = A
New Species of the Wombat Warendja from
Late Miocene Deposits at Riversleigh, North-
West Queensland, Australia. ( 英 文 ). Brewer P;
Archer M; Hand S; Godthelp H. Palaeontology,
2007, 50(4): 811-828
A new species of the plesiomorphic wombat
Warendja is described. Warendja encorensis
sp. nov., the second species to be attributed
to this genus, is known from a single fossil
locality (Encore Site) at Riversleigh, northwest
Queensland. Specimens of W. encorensis
are limited to isolated teeth, two mandibular
fragments and a maxillary fragment. Two molars
preserve the unworn crown morphology.
Encore Site has been estimated to be late Miocene
in age, making these the only known
specimens of Warendja to be clearly older
than Pleistocene. Warendja encorensis is also
the first described species of wombat from
Miocene deposits to which hypselodont teeth
have been attributed. It differs from
W. wakefieldi in its larger size, distribution of
enamel, and in details of the incisor and premolar
morphology.
2008010378
意 大 利 北 部 更 新 世 Balaenopterid 鲸 一 新 基
部 类 群 = A New Basal Balaenopterid Whale
From The Pliocene Of Northern Italy. ( 英 文 ).
Bisconti M. Palaeontology, 2007, 50(5):
1103-1122
A new basal balaenopterid genus and species,
Archaebalaenoptera castriarquati, is
described and compared with all the living and
fossil members of the family Balaenopteridae
and related fossil rorqual-like taxa. It was
found in the Lower Pliocene of northern Italy,
and is characterized by a supraoccipital with a
transversely compressed anterior process, the
zygomatic process of the squamosal diverging
from the longitudinal axis of the skull, very
long nasal bones, and subtle exposition of the
parietal on the dorsal wall of the skull. It is
primitive in having a maxilla with a long ascending
process that is posteriorly unexpanded
and round, and a dentary that is straight and
not bowed outward, unlike that of living
Balaenopteridae. In particular, the discovery
of this new genus suggests that, among the
early members of Balaenopteridae, the acquisition
of the typical sutural pattern shown by
maxilla, frontal, parietal and supraoccipital
preceded the acquisition of the feeding-related
traits that are characteristic of the family. The
primitive morphology of the feeding-related
structures of A. castriarquati (i.e. the straight
dentary and the flat glenoid fossa of the
squamosal) suggests that this whale was un-
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