Comments on Percrocuta carnifex (Carnivora, Percrocutidae) based on new fossil material from the Nagri Formation (Middle Siwaliks) of Hasnot, Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/GeologicaActa2019.17.3Keywords:
Percrocuta carnifex, Carnivora, Percrocutidae, Miocene, Middle Siwaliks.Abstract
New dentary material of Percrocuta carnifex (Pilgrim, 1913) from the Nagri Formation ofHasnot, Pakistan, is described. Specimens of this species from the Siwalik continental deposits described by previous authors are discussed in detail. In addition to the taxonomic description of the new material, the occurrence and stratigraphic position of this species within the Siwalik Hills are re-evaluated. Except for the holotype, the specimens assigned to this species are very fragmentary. The newly discovered material, a right mandibular ramus containing teeth, is the best preserved specimen found to date. The comparative analysis, based on tooth morphology and dimensions of previously reported specimens and of the specimen studied here, suggests that this species is restricted to the Chinji and Nagri formations. Finally, the dental morphological features of the studied specimen and those of other species of Percrocuta are compared, and then the phylogenetic relationship between these species is discussed. The described specimen is thus important for the taxonomic, stratigraphic and phylogenetic knowledge of P. carnifex from the Siwaliks.
References
Barry, J.C., Lindsay, E.H., Jacobs, L.L., 1982. A biostratigraphic zonation of the Middle and Upper Siwaliks of the Potwar Plateau of northern Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 37(1), 95-130.
Barry, J.C., Flynn, L.J., 1989. Key biostratigraphic events in the Siwalik sequence. In: Lindsay, E.H., Fahlbusch, V., Mein, P. (eds.). European Neogene Mammal Chronology, NATO ASI Series. Life Sciences, 180, 557-571. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4899-2513-8_33
Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E., Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Raza, S.M., Khan, I.A., Badgley, C., Hicks, J., Kelley, J., 2002. Faunal and environmental change in the late Miocene Siwaliks of northern Pakistan. Paleobiology, 28(2), 1-71.
Behrensmeyer, A.K., Wills, B.J., Quade, J., 1995. Floodplains and paleosols of Pakistan Neogene and Wyoming Paleogene deposits: a comparative study. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 115(1-4), 37-60.
Cheema, M.R., Raza, S.M., Ahmad, H., 1977. Cainozoic. In: Shah, S.M.I. (ed.). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of
Pakistan Memoirs, 12, 56-98.
Ciriċ, A., 1960. Die Chios-Fauna von Prebreza (Serbien). Bulletin de l’Institut de Recherches Géologique et Géophysique de
Belgrade, A 18, 109-131.
Colbert, E.H., 1935. Siwalik mammals in the American Museum of Natural History. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Lancaster Press, INC., Lancaster, PA., New Series, 26, i-x, 1-401.
Colbert, E.H., 1939. Carnivora of the Tung Gur Formation of Mongolia. New York, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 76(2), 47-81.
Gabunia, L., 1973. Fossil vertebrates of the fauna of Bjelometschskaya (in Russian). Akademii Nauk, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republics Tiflis, 138pp.
Ghaffar, A., 2005. Studies on equids, cervids and Carnivora from the Siwalik Hills of Pakistan. PhD Thesis. Lahore (Pakistan),
University of the Punjab, 389pp.
Ghaffar, A., Akhtar, M., Butt, M.J., Khan, M.A., Ikram, T., 2011. Late Miocene Hyaenids from the Middle Siwaliks of Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Zoology, 43(5), 855-862.
Ghaffar, A., Akhtar, M., 2012. New fossil record of Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi (Carnivora: Hyaenidae) from Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot, Pakistan. Swiss Journal of Paleontology, 131(2), 275-281.
Guanfang, C., Schmidt Kittler, N., 1983. The deciduous dentition of Percrocuta Kretzoi and the diphyletic origin of hyaenas
(Carnivora, Mammalia). Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 57(1-2), 159-169.
Howell, F.C., Petter, G., 1985. Comparative observations on some Middle and Upper Miocene hyaenids. Genera: Percrocuta
Kretzoi, Allohyaena Kretzoi, Adcrocuta Kretzoi (Mammalia Carnivora, Hyaenidae). Geobios, 18(4), 419-476.
Johnson, N.M., Opdyke, N.D., Johnson, G.D., Lindsay, E.H., Tahirkheli, R.A.K., 1982. Magnetic polarity stratigraphy and ages of Siwalik group rocks of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 37(1), 17-42.
Khan, M.A., 2007. Taxonomic studies on fossil remains of ruminants from Tertiary Hills of Hasnot, Pakistan. PhD Thesis. Lahore (Pakistan), University of the Punjab, 292pp.
Khan, M.A., Iliopoulos, G., Akhtar, M., 2009. Boselaphines (Artiodactyla, Ruminantia, Bovidae) from the Middle Siwaliks of Hasnot, Pakistan. Geobios, 42(6), 739-753.
Kretzoi, M., 1938. Die Raubtiere von Gombaszog nebst einer Ubersicht der Gesamtfauna. Annales Musei Nationalis Hungarici, 31, 89-157.
Kurtén, B., 1957. Percrocuta Kretzoi (Mammalia, Carnivora), a group of Neogene hyaenas. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 2,
-404.
Lydekker, R., 1884. Indian tertiary and post-tertiary vertebrate. Vol. 2. Part 6. Siwalik and Narbada Carnivora. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Palaeontologia Indica, 10, 178-351.
Matthew, W.D., 1929. Critical observations upon Siwalik Mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 56, 437-560.
Mayda, S., Koufos, G.D., Kaya, T., Gul, A., 2015. New carnivore material from the Middle Miocene of Turkey. Implications on
biochronology and palaeoecology. Geobios, 48(1), 9-23.
Morales, J., Pickford, M., 2006. A large Percrocutid Carnivore from the Late Miocene (ca. 10–9 Ma) of Nakali, Kenya. Annales de Paléontologie, 92(4), 359-366.
Pilbeam, D., Barry, J., Meyer, G.E., Shah, S.M.I., Pickford, M.H.L., Bishop, W.W., Thomas, H., Jacobs, L.L., 1977. Geology and palaeontology of Neogene strata of Pakistan. Nature, 270(5639), 684-689.
Pilgrim, G.E., 1910. Notices of new mammalian genera and species from the Territories of India. Records of the Geological Survey of India, 40, 63-71.
Pilgrim, G.E., 1913. Correlation of the Siwaliks with Mammal Horizons of Europe. Records of Geological Survey of India, 43, 264-326.
Pilgrim, G.E., 1931. Catalogue of the Pontian Carnivora of Europe in the Department of Geology. London, British Museum
(Natural History), 174pp.
Pilgrim, G.E., 1932. The fossil Carnivora of India. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Palaeontologia Indica, 18, 1-232.
Schlosser, M., 1903. Die fossilen Säugetiere Chinas, nebst einer Odontographie der recenten Antilopen. Abhandlungen der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, MathematischNaturwissenschaftliche Klasse, 22, 1-221.
Schmidt-Kittler, N., 1976. Raubtiere aus dem Jüngtertiӓr Kleinasiens. Palaeontographica A, 155, 1-131.
Shah, S.M.I., 2009. Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan Memoirs, 22, 1-381.
Soria, D., 1980. “Percrocuta y Adcrocuta” (Hyaenidae, Mammalia) en el Mioceno superior del área de Teruel. Madrid, Estudios Geológicos, 36(1), 143-161.
Thenius, E., 1966. Zur Stammesgeschichte der Hyänen (Carnivora, Mammalia). Zeitschrift, für Sӓugetierkunde, 31, 292-300.
Wang, X., Flynn, L.J., Fortelius, M., 2013. Introduction: Toward a Continental Asian Biostratigraphic and Geochronologic Framework. In: Wang, X., Flynn, L.J., Fortelius, M. (eds.). Fossil Mammals of Asia: Neogene biostratigraphy and chronology. New York, Columbia University Press, 1-26. Available at: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/27867246
Werdelin, L., Solounias, N., 1991. The Hyaenidae: taxonomy, systematics and evolution. Fossils and Strata, 30, 1-104.
Werdelin, L., Kurtén, B., 1999. Allohyaena (Mammalia: Carnivora): giant hyaenid from the Late Miocene of Hungary. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 126(3), 319-334.
Wills, B.J., Behrensmeyer, A.K., 1995. Fluvial systems in the Siwalik Neogene and Wyoming Paleogene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 114(1-4), 13-35.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Geologica Acta
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Geologica Acta is the property of the UB, GEO3BCN, IDAEA and UAB. Geologica Acta must be cited for any partial or full reproduction. Papers are distributed under the Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License. This license allows anyone to reproduce and disseminate the content of the journal and even make derivative works crediting authorship and provenance and distributing possible derivative works under the same or an equivalent license.
Author Rights
Authors retain the copyright on their papers and are authorized to post them on their own web pages or institutional repositories. The copyright was retained by the journal from the year 2003 until 2009. In all cases, the complete citation and a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article must be included.
The authors can use excerpts or reproduce illustrations of their papers in other works without prior permission from Geologica Acta provided the source of the paper including the complete citation is fully acknowledged.
