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First Record of a Chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar

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First Record of a Chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar First record of a chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar OLIVIER CHAVASSEAU, YAOWALAK CHAIMANEE, PAULINE COSTER, EDOUARD−GEORGES EMONET, AUNG NAING SOE, AUNG AUNG KYAW, AYE MAUNG, MANA RUGBUMRUNG, HLA SHWE, and JEAN−JACQUES JAEGER Chavasseau, O., Chaimanee, Y., Coster, P., Emonet, E.−G., Soe, A.N., Kyaw, A.A., Maung, A., Rugbumrung, M., Shwe, H., and Jaeger, J.−J. 2010. First record of a chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 55 (1): 13–22. Here we describe the first record of a chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar. The chalicothere, documented by a par− tial mandible, was unearthed from the lower portion of the Irrawaddy Formation in the region of Magway, Central Myanmar. The Burmese material belongs to an early late Miocene fauna which recently yielded hominoid remains attrib− uted to Khoratpithecus. The specimen, which is attributed to a chalicotheriine, does not reliably match with any described Miocene Eurasian species of this subfamily, suggesting the possibility it belongs to a new taxon. The discovery of a chalicotheriine in the surroundings of Magway contributes to the hypothesis that closed habitats were an important component of the paleoenvironment of Khoratpithecus. Key words: Mammalia, Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae, Chalicotheriinae, Khoratpithecus, paleoenvironment, Mio− cene, Myanmar. Olivier Chavasseau [olivier.chavasseau@univ−poitiers.fr], Department of Mineral Resources, Paleontology section, Bureau of Geological Survey, Rama 6 road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand; Institut International de Paléoprimatologie et de Paléontologie Humaine: Evolution et Paléoenvironnements, UMR CNRS 6046 Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers, France; Yaowalak Chaimanee [[email protected]] and Mana Rugbumrung, Department of Mineral Resources, Paleontology section, Bureau of Geological Survey, Rama 6 road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand; Pauline Coster [pauline.coster@univ−poitiers.fr], Edouard−Georges Emonet [edouard.georges.emonet@univ−poitiers.fr], and Jean−Jacques Jaeger [jean−jacques.jaeger@univ−poitiers.fr], Institut International de Paléoprimatologie et de Paléontologie Humaine: Evolution et Paléoenvironnements, UMR CNRS 6046 Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers, France; Aung Naing Soe [[email protected]], Department of Geology, Dagon University, PO 11422 Yangon, Myanmar; Aung Aung Kyaw, Aye Maung, and Hla Shwe, Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library, Mandalay, Myanmar. Received 2 March 2009, accepted 25 August 2009, available online 3 September 2009. Introduction cene of northern China has also contributed to the under− standing of the phylogeny of the family (Colbert 1934; Xue Chalicotheriidae is a family of clawed perissodactyls known and Coombs 1985; Wang and Wang 2001). In Southern from the Oligocene to the Pleistocene whose peculiar anat− Asia, however, the fossil record of chalicotheres is much omy has long drawn the attention of vertebrate paleontolo− poorer. Except for brief reports from the middle Miocene of gists. Unfortunately, this family is poorly documented in the northern Thailand (Thomas et al. 1990; Ducrocq et al. 1994) fossil record, which renders its evolutionary history difficult and the Pleistocene of Myanmar (Takai et al. 2006), the rich− to reconstruct. The Chalicotheriidae are classically divided est chalicothere material is that of Chalicotherium salinum into two subfamilies, the Chalicotheriinae and the Schizo− Forster−Cooper, 1922 from the middle and late Miocene of theriinae, which evolved simultaneously during most of the the Siwaliks of Pakistan. This species represents the only Neogene (Coombs 1989). The relatively rich chalicothere re− well documented Miocene chalicothere from this region. cord of western and southern Europe has played a central role Since the end of the 19th century, the Neogene continen− in the knowledge of the family's diversity, systematics and tal Irrawaddy Formation, which crops out throughout the evolution for the whole of the Miocene of Eurasia (e.g., Myanmar Central Basin, has yielded terrestrial mammalian Bonis et al. 1995; Geraads et al. 2001; Anquetin et al. 2007). faunas (e.g., Noetling 1895, 1897; Pilgrim 1927; Colbert The discovery of cranial and mandibular remains in the Mio− 1938). However, few of the fossils have been formally de− Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 55 (1): 13–22, 2010 doi:10.4202/app.2009.0033 14 ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA 55 (1), 2010 E94°45 E95°00 E95°15 N20°30 Yenangaung 90 N20°15 Magway N20°00 Mandalay 80 Shan plateau 25 km N19°45 sandstone Myanmar Khoratpithecus 70 Central Basin outcrops conglomerate claystone Yangon clayey sandstone Irrawaddy Fm. Pegu Group cross-bedded stratification 60 gypsum Fig. 1. A. Map of Myanmar showing the area of study within the Myanmar 50 Central Basin. B. Detailed map of the Magway region positioning the out− crops that yielded the chalicothere mandible MFI−105. scribed while most of the reports have mentioned geographi− Thickness (m) MFI-105 cally and stratigraphically imprecise spots, impeding the 40 paleontological potential of the formation, which is supposed to range from the middle Miocene to the Pleistocene (e.g., Bender 1983; Chavasseau et al. 2006). First in 2002, then yearly since 2006, the French−Myanmar paleontological team surveyed the outcrops of the Irrawaddy Formation with the aim of improving the comprehension of 30 the evolution of the Neogene faunas of Southeast Asia. These Khoratpithecus efforts led to the discovery 20 km southeast of Magway (Fig. 1) of an early late Miocene mammalian fauna comprising the remains of the hominoid Khoratpithecus (JJJ, unpublished data). All the fossils of this fauna were discovered in a 100 m 20 thick section showing rapid lateral variation of facies, and mostly composed of cross−bedded coarse yellowish sands interstratified with sandy clays, thin clay layers, and numerous thin ferruginous conglomerate layers (Fig. 2). In December 2007, a partial mandible of a chalicothere was unearthed near 10 the village of Ondwe from a ferruginous layer located strati− graphically approximately 15 meters above the Khoratpi− thecus−bearing level (Fig. 2). This discovery is of interest given the scarcity of chalicotheres in the fossil record of Southeast Asia, especially when taking into consideration that no Miocene remains of this family have yet been described 0 from Myanmar. This paper aims, by describing this new speci− Fig. 2. Synthethic lithology of the Irrawaddy Formation Khoratpithecus− men, to contribute both to the knowledge of the Miocene fau− bearing outcrops 20 km southeast of Magway positioning the hominoid fos− nas of Southeast Asia and to that of the chalicothere evolution sil and the chalicothere specimen MFI−105. CHAVASSEAU ET AL.—MIOCENE CHALICOTHERE FROM MYANMAR 15 part of the specimen displays a very slightly outwardly curved mtstd plv partial diastema whose minimum length is 26 mm. The depth mtd mtld entd of the corpus is extremely shallow at the anteriormost portion alv hyld lingual of the diastema (18 mm) and increases sharply until the p2 (mean angle of 25° relative to the alveolar plane, Fig. 5). Be− pad mesial distal low the teeth, the depth of the corpus becomes almost uniform. pc buccal A mental foramen is noticeable slightly posterior to the ante− pald rior edge of the symphyseal break. As visible on the lingual side of the specimen, the posterior extremity of the symphysis prd prld bv bc hyd reaches the level of the p2. The p2, the crown of which was not preserved, is dou− Fig. 3. Lower teeth nomenclature adopted in this article displayed on a com− ble−rooted. The posterior root presents a subcircular section posite m1 of Chalicotherium salinum (drawn from a mirror image of GSP of moderate size (5.2 × 4.6 mm). Mesially, small dentine 23046 with the exception of the “metastylid” pattern which was drawn from fragments and a damaged alveolus, remnants of the anterior GSP 9665). After Coombs (1978). Abbreviations: alv, anterior lingual val− ley; bc, buccal cingulum; bv, buccal valley; entd, entoconid; hyd, hypo− root, are distinguishable. conid; hyld, hypolophid; mtd, metaconid; mtld, metalophid; mtstd, “meta− The p3 is also double−rooted. Its crown is only slightly stylid”; pad, paraconid; pald, paralophid; pc, posterior cingulum; plv, pos− worn and built of two lobes of equal breadth, which renders it terior lingual valley; prd, protoconid; prld, protolophid. rectangular in occlusal view. The trigonid is dominated by a bulbous and high protoconid. A nearly mesio−distal and in this region. The nomenclature adopted hereafter for lower spur−like paralophid starts from the mesial border of the cheek teeth is displayed in Fig. 3. Institutional abbreviations.—AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA; ANR, Agence nationale de la recherche, France; CNRS, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France; GSP, Geological Survey of Pakistan, Quetta, Pakistan; IPHEP, Institut International de Paléopri− matologie et de Paléontologie Humaine: Evolution et Paléo− p2 roots environnements, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France; MFI, Myanmar−French Irrawaddy Mission Collection deposited at Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Culture, Mandalay, Myanmar; MNHN, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France; TRF, Thailand Research Fund, Thailand. 10 mm Systematic paleontology Order Perissodactyla Gray, 1848 Family Chalicotheriidae Gill, 1872 Subfamily Chalicotheriinae Gill, 1872 Gen. et sp. indet. Figs. 4, 5. Locality and age:
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