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PEARCE-SELLARDS Series NUMBER 17 Early Tertiary

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PEARCE-SELLARDS Series NUMBER 17 Early Tertiary THE PEARCE- SELLARDS Series NUMBER 17 Early Tertiary Vertebrate Faunas, Vieja Group, Trans-Pecos Texas: Entelodontidae % JOHN ANDREW WILSON July, 1971 TEXAS MEMORIAL MUSEUM / 24TH & TRINITY / AUSTIN, TEXAS W. W. NEWCOMB, JR., DIRECTOR Introduction Earlier publications, primarily Stovall (1948), DeFord (1958), Wilson et al. (1968) and Wilson (1971), discuss the location, previous work, stratigraphy, and age of the Vieja Group. A full repetition is not necessary in this paper, but to facilitate reading, the stratigraphic section and the positions of the local faunas are given in fig. 1. ABBREVIATIONS AXSP Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia CM Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh FMXH Field Museum of Xatural History, Chicago TMM Texas Memorial Museum, Austin l.f. local fauna Collection numbers without prefix belong to TMM’" and those numbers preceded by a hvphen include the five-digit locality number preceding. All measurements are in millimeters. General areas for local faunas are indicated diagrammaticallv in Wilson et aJ. (1968, figs. 1 and 2). Detailed descriptions of localities are on file at the Vertebrate Paleontologv Laboratory, Balcones Research Center, The Uni- versity of Texas at Austin. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XSF grants G 13270 and CP 1050, the Geologv Foundation and The Uni- versity of Texas at Austin have supported the field work, the laboratory pre- paration, and, in part, the cost of illustrations. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Gibson of Terlingua, Texas, generously donated the very fine skull and jaws of Archaeotherium to the collection of the Texas Memorial Museum. The Carnegie Museum specimens were loaned to me for studv by Drs. Craig C. Black and Mary R. Dawson. Dr. Rainer Zangerl, of the Field Museum of Xatural History, Chicago, has generouslv extended the loan of Porvenir local fauna material collected and originallv loaned by Prof. Bryan Patterson, now of Harvard University. I am grateful for their coopera- tion. Dr. Mary R. Dawson kindly read the manuscript, but I am responsible for the conclusions. The drawings were made by Margaret S. Stevens. ° This collection and the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory were formerly under the administrative control of the Bureau of Economic Geology. They were transferred to the Texas Memorial Museum, The University of Texas at Austin, in November, 1969. 3 Fig. 1. Succession of rock-stratigraphic units and position of local faunas in the Vieja Group, Trans- Pecos Texas. (After Wilson el al. 1 968). SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY Order Artiodactyla Owen, 1848 Suborder Suiformes Jaeckel, 1911 Infraorder Palaeodonta Matthew, 1929 Superfamily Entelodontoidea Colbert, 1938 Family Entelodontidae Lydecker, 1883 Subfamily Entelodontidae Osborn, 1909 Genus Brachylujops Colbert, 1938 4 3 Fig. 2. Brachyhyops wyomingens.'s. A. CM 1 1 989. Occlusal view of roots of P 5, P*; M lM ; Duchesne, La Pointe, Utah. B. CM 12079. Occlusal view M l -M 3. Red Narrows, N. of La Pointe, Uintah Co., Utah. Both figs. X .67. Brachyhyops tvyomingensis Colbert, 1938 Figs. 2, 3; tables 1, 2. 4 3 Type.—CM 12048, skull with badlv worn P -M . Beaver Divide, Wvo. Referred Material. -FMNH PM 150, fragmentary lower jaw with poorly l-3 preseryed P 3 -M 3 (Porvenir 1.f.); CM 12079, fragmentary left M , and CM ~3 11989, fragmentary right M , both from Utah. 5 Fig. 3. Brachyhyops wyomingensis. FMNH PM 150. Lateral view of lower jaw and occlusal view of P -M . X .67. 4 3 TABLE 1 Measurements of upper teeth of Brachvhyops wyomingensis, type (after Colbert, 1938), CM 12048, CM 12079, CM 11989 or 18668 and of Archaeotherium cf. mortoni, TMM 40840-49 and FMNH PM 98. Brachijhyopsivt/omingensis B.bncnwiiominaensisxvvominEensisp’ £ ,—.£ ,—.£ • •' IOCO®05ioCO bbbbIdTypei—.gjFMNIICDOGOPIpM H-4-Archaeotherium|—i00pcjy[CDWpPM1Arr.hnpnfhpriiim|—iPp pio<j1098PMM GO FMXHIOPM 150,COlower of Chambers TuffIOFm.; StratigraphichhIo'-'hhhh03oiPosition.H CMpart X1989 Red N. La-JO CM Narrows12079 b I oi bn cd cd bo PI—1Porvenir f.;I—‘I—>12079,to Oligocene,CMtoLapoint horizon; 1204840840-49 to to to t— to T c«i—iPointe,ui—Uintahu Co.,1 Utah;>uCM 11989,coLapoint1i— i—*Member,1 L tah. m Diagnosis.w —Medium size, short muzzle, entelodontoid. Zygomatic arches expanded, orbits closed. M 3 without elongate heel, M 3 with single internal closely cusp, lower premolars apparently spaced. P 3 at least as long as, if not . longer than P 4 , no diastema between P 4 and P 3 Description. —The lower jaw, FMNH PM 150 fits very closely with the upper dentition of the tvpe of Brachyhyops wyomingensis. The upper teeth of the Carnegie Museum specimens are of the correct size to be referred to the same species. The roots of P3 and P 4 are yisible in CM 11989 (fig. 2); P 4 is three rooted. P is crowded against P 4 . The M and M 1 are broken in both Carnegie Museum specimens. The better M is preserved on CM 12079. There is an anterior cingulum but no internal cingulum. The wear facets of the proto- cone, protoconules, hvpocone, and metaconule are present. Specimen CM 7 TABLE 2 Measurements of lower teeth of Brachyhyops wyomingensis FMNH PM 150, Eoentelodon yunnanensis. Geol. Mus. CPF Vm 0051 and Archaeotherium cf. mortoni, TMM 40840-49, -33. Brachyhijops EoenteJodon Archeotherium 40840-33 wyomingensis yunnanensis 40840-49 FMNH PM 150 Geol. Mus. CPP Vm 0051 C L 17.4 W 12.0 P, L 12.3 W 6.8 P 2 L W 25.1 P :! L W 11.5 P4 L 18.4 14.6 26.4 W 10.4 7.5 11.8 Mj L 15.6 13.2 21.4 W 11.7 9.6 M, L 16.3 16.0 23.5 W 14.3 11.3 15.3 23.2 M 3 L 17.5 14.2 21.9 W 13.0 10.2 15.5 11.4 11989 has the better preserved M 2, The external cusps are broken but enough is present to show they were higher than the internal cusps. This was prob- ably also true for Ml . The protoconule and metaconule are prominent and lines through them from the paracone to the protocone and metacone to the in hvpocone respectively curve posteriorlv. On M 3, which is well preserved both specimens, there is a cingulum surrounding the whole tooth. The para- cone is the largest cusp; protocone, protoconule, metacone and metaconule are present. The hypocone is absent. The tooth has a rounded triangular out- line. The two Carnegie Museum specimens from Utah are so close in size and tooth wear that they could possiblv be from the same individual. On the icferred lower jaw from Texas, FMNH PM 150 (fig. 3), only the left Mj is complete. The central part of the symphysis is present so that the length of the jaw is determinable but the dorsal part, including the alveoli for the incisors, canines, and anterior premolars, is missing. The ventral borders of the rami are also missing so that it is impossible to tell whether bosses were present. Enough of the right P 3 is preserved to determine that it was as large 8 as and probably larger than P4 . It is crowded against P 4 which in turn is closely set against M,. The right P 4 shows a small anterior cingulum but no sign of a paraconid. The main cusp on the left P 4 is high and between its base and the posterior cingulum is a small median accessory cusp. The arrange- ment of the cusps on Mi is exactly like that on M 4 of Archaeotherium from the Brule of South Dakota. The anterior cingulum is faint, the paraconid and metaconid form anterointernal cusps that join to a single cusp with slight wear. The anterior cusps are higher than the posterior cusps. A very small tu- bercle is present between the posterior cusps in the position of a hypoconu- lid. The largest molar is M>. It is poorly preserved on the left side only but ap- parently had the same pattern as Mi. The right M 3 has lost the enamel from the heel. Para-and metaconids are present in line anterioposteriorly. The ento- and hvpoconids were present and from the preserved dentine it is possible to tell that there was a median cusp on the heel and that the heel was very short. The ventral edge of the lower jaw is missing in FMNH PM 150 so that it cannot be told whether ventral bosses were present or absent. Futhermore, the depth of the jaw beneath the cheek teeth is not known. The depth of jaw beneath the molars might have been the same as in TMM 40840-49, a lower jaw of Archaeotherium from the Little Egypt l.f. Also because much of the elongation of the lower jaw in Archaeotherium occurs in the anterior premolar area and this area is broken off in FMNH PM 150, it might be claimed that this is a small Archaeotherium. The presence of FMNH PM 98 in the Porvenir 1.f., although slightly higher in the section, indicates to me that both Archae- otherium and Brachyhyops were probably present at the same time and that one is not ancestral to the other. The cheek teeth of FMNH PM 150 are so much smaller than those of any Archaeotherium of the Little Egypt l.f. and the near perfect fit of FMNH PM 150 with the type skull of Brachyhyops leads me to this identification. since time Relationships.r .—Colbert (1938) described the type skull and that nothing has been added to the knowledge of Brachijhyops. Colbert (1938) tentatively assigned Brachyhyops to the Choeropotamidae. Scott (1945), Simpson (1945), and Romer (1966) followed Colbert in this family assign- ment. Colbert (1938) carefully compared the type, showing likenesses and differences, with members of the families Dichobunidae, Choeropotamidae, Cebochoeridae, Entelodontidae and Tayassuidae.
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