Gazella (Bovidae,Ruminantia) remains from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan

Khan, M.A., Babar, M.A., Akhtar, M., Iliopoulos, G., Rakha, A. & Noor, T., November 2015. Gazella (Bovidae, Ruminantia) remains from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

New gazelle fossils are described from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. The material includes horncores, maxilla and mandible fragments, and isolated teeth. The available samples are assigned to three Gazella species: Gazella sp. in the Lower Siwalik Subgroup (ca 14.2–11.2 Ma), and G. lydekkeri and G. superba in the Middle Siwalik Subgroup (ca 10.2–3.4 Ma). Based on a review of the Siwalik Group gazelles, G. padriensis is synonymized with G. lydekkeri. Gazella superba Pilgrim, 1939 sensu stricto is a large form and is a valid species of the genus in the Siwalik Group.

Muhammad Akbar Khan [akbaar111@yahoo.ca], Muhammad Adeeb Babar [babar_fcc2005@yahoo.com], Muhammad Akhtar [drakhtarfdrc@hotmail.com], Allah Rakha [babar.441@googlemail.com], Tuba Noor [akbar.zool@pu.edu.pk], Abu Bakr Fossil Display & Research Centre, Department of Zoology, Quid-e-Azam Campus, Punjab University (54590), Lahore, Pakistan; George Iliopoulos [borelakias@gmail.com], Geology Department of the University of Patras, Patras, Greece.     

Macropodines from the Pliocene Otibanda Formation,Papua New Guinea

Newly collected material of macropodines from the Otibanda Formation, P.N.G., includes previously unknown elements from described taxa, as well as material of a new and plesiomorphic macropodine, Watutia novaeguineae gen. et. sp. nov. Known only from adult upper and lower cheek tooth rows, this species shows a close similarity to undescribed macropodines of Tertiary age from northwestern Queensland and Hadronomas puckridgi from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia. The upper molar row assigned to Dorcopsis sp. by Plane (1967), but regarded to be more closely related to Dendrolagus by Woodburne (1967), is here interpreted to be closer in morphology to species of Dorcopsis than Dendrolagus.     

Further Ektopodontidae (Phalangeroidea,Mammalia) from southwestern Victoria

The youngest members of the Ektopodontidae, an enigmatic family of Phalangeroidea, are reported from southwestern Victoria. Four isolated teeth are described as Ektopodon paucicristata sp. nov. (from the ?mid-?late Pliocene, and early Pliocene) and two isolated Pleistocene teeth are assigned to Darcius duggani Rich, 1986. Previously, the youngest known ektopodontid was early Pliocene.     

Pliocene Mollusca (Bivalvia,Gastropoda) from the Sørsdal Formation,Marine Plain,Vestfold Hills,East Antarctica: taxonomy and implications for Antarctic Pliocene palaeoenvironments

Quilty, P.G., Darragh, T.A., Gallagher, S.J. & Harding, L.A. July 2016. Pliocene Mollusca (Bivalvia, Gastropoda) from the Sørsdal Formation, Marine Plain, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica: taxonomy and implications for Antarctic Pliocene palaeoenvironments. Alcheringa 40, XXX–XXX. ISSN 0311-5518.

Pliocene shallow-water marine sediments at Marine Plain (centred on 68°37.7?S; 78°07.8?E) and covering approximately 10 km² in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, have yielded six species of gastropods, and 11 species of bivalves from two beds within the Sørsdal Formation. Most of the material is close to in situ but some specimens have been disturbed from their life position; there is no evidence of significant transport. The gastropods include Nacella concinna (Strebel, 1908), Falsimargarita parvispira Quilty, Darragh, Gallagher & Harding sp. nov., indeterminate species of trochids and naticids, Chlanidota (Chlanidota) sp. cf. C. signeyana Powell, 1951, and two species of Trophon/Trophonella. Bivalves include Ennucula sp. aff. E. grayi (d’Orbigny, 1846), Aequiyoldia defossata Quilty, Darragh, Gallagher & Harding, sp. nov., ‘Pectunculina’ sp., Lissarca sp., Austrochlamys anderssoni (Hennig, 1911), Ruthipecten campestris Quilty, Darragh, Gallagher & Harding sp. nov., Adamussium necopinatum Quilty, Darragh, Gallagher & Harding sp. nov., Limatula (Antarctolima) sp. cf. L. hodgsoni (Smith, 1907), Cyclocardia magna Quilty, Darragh, Gallagher & Harding sp. nov., ?Hiatella sp. cf. H. arctica (Linnaeus, 1767) and Laternula elliptica (King, 1832). Preservation varies considerably owing to recrystallization, dissolution or distortion through compaction, so several species are left in open nomenclature. Oxygen isotope data indicate that water temperature was 4–7.5°C at the time of shell growth. Many species or species groups are now extinct or have migrated away from the Antarctic to the sub-Antarctic region. An Antarctic mollusc fauna has been characteristic of the region for much of the Cenozoic.

Patrick G. Quilty [p.quilty@utas.edu.au], Discipline of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia; Thomas A. Darragh [tdarragh@museum.vic.gov.au], Museum Victoria, GPO Box 666 Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia; Stephen J. Gallagher [sjgall@unimelb.edu.au], School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Lucy A. Harding [harding.lucy.a@edumail.vic.gov.au], School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.     

A new genus and species of dasyurid from the Pliocene Chinchilla Local Fauna of south-eastern Queensland

A new genus and species of dasyurid is described on the basis of P³, M¹–M³ and M_2–3 collected from the middle Pliocene Chinchilla Local Fauna of south-eastern Queensland. Character analysis supports the placement of this new taxon within the dasyurid subfamily Dasyurinae. Derived dasyuromorphian features common to A. chinchillaensis and most dasyurines include: reduction of P³, reduction of stylar cusp B on M¹; reduction of metaconids; approximation of stylar cusp B and the metacone on M¹; alignment of the postmetacrista on M¹ with the long axis of the maxilla and an oblique orientation of the hypocristids with respect to the long axis of the teeth. However in most instances, A. chinchillaensis is less specialised than other members of the subfamily for characters considered. One derived dental feature, reduction of the entoconid, may indicate a special relationship with ‘parantechinines’, Dasyuroides and/or Dasycercus. Additionally, the presence of this feature is suggestive of an open woodland/seasonal habitat. Autapomorphic P³ morphology compounds difficulties with the phylogenetic placement of this taxon.     

A new fossil genus of forest wallaby (Marsupialia,Macropodinae) and a review of Protemnodon from eastern Australia and New Guinea

A new macropodine genus and species, Silvaroo bila, is described from the Pliocene Chinchilla Sand of Queensland. The generic concept of Protemnodon is reviewed, and it is concluded that two Pliocene species previously placed in that genus (bandharr and buloloensis) belong in Silvaroo. Species of Silvaroo resemble the modern forest wallabies of Papua New Guinea (species of Dorcopsis and Dorcopsulus) and also bear close phenetic resemblance to the late Miocene Dorcopsoides fossilis. Forest wallabies are not known from mainland Australia after the middle Pliocene, but occur in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene of New Guinea.     

The first fossil sea turtles (Testudines: Cheloniidae) from the Cenozoic of Australia

An isolated dentary and costal identified as cf. Pacifichelys and Cheloniidae indet., respectively, are described from the upper Miocene–lower Pliocene Black Rock Sandstone of Beaumaris, Victoria, Australia. These remains represent the first fossil evidence of sea turtles from the Cenozoic of Australia. Neither of the fossils can be referred to living genera, indicating that extinct cheloniids occurred in southeast Australian coastal waters for at least part of the late Neogene. Thus, the taxonomic composition of the current sea turtle fauna of Australia was apparently established within the last five to six million years.     

A new petauroid possum (Marsupialia,Pseudocheiridae) from the Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna,northern Queensland

Pseudochirops winteri n. sp. is described from the Pliocene Bluff Downs Local Fauna on the basis of a left dentary fragment with M₂. It is considered to be most similar to P. archeri although its phylogenetic position must remain tentative until further material is found. The presence of this presumably rainforest-dwelling possum, the first from this fauna, may indicate a limited closed forest component. Given the paucity of additional rainforest taxa recovered from this site despite extensive screen washing, however, such a component must have been restricted to gullies or riparian fringes.     

A new Pliocene tree kangaroo species (Marsupialia,Macropodinae) from the Chinchilla Local Fauna,southeastern Queensland

A new species of very large tree kangaroo, Bohra wilkinsonorum, is described from a maxillary fragment from the Pliocene Chinchilla Sands of southeastern Queensland. Allocation to Bohra, which has previously been known from postcranial material only, is suggested on the basisof its similar size and stage of evolution to Bohra paulae. Both species of Bohra are plesiomorphic with respect to species of Dendrolagus, and are much larger than any known species of Dendrolagus. This new taxon from Chinchilla has expanded the tree kangaroo record from the Pliocene of southeastern Australia, supporting the hypothesis that the group originated in the late Miocene of ‘mainland’ Australia, finding refuge in north-eastern Queensland and New Guinea as climate became drier in the Quaternary. Fossil tree kangaroos are unknown from the Pliocene of Papua New Guinea where most living species now occur.     

The northernmost South American fossil record of Boa constrictor (Boidae,Boinae) from the Plio–Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual (Venezuela)

Onary-Alves, S.Y., Hsiou, A.S. & Rincón, A.D., July 2016. The northernmost South American fossil record of Boa constrictor (Boidae, Boinae) from the Plio–Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual (Venezuela). Alcheringa 41, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Boa constrictor is an extant boid widely distributed through the neotropical region, from the north of Central America to central Argentina. The fossil record of the species includes examples from several localities across the Americas that extend beyond the current distribution of the species. Here we report the first Plio–Pleistocene fossils of Boa from Monagas state, Venezuela. The material comes from El Breal de Orocual (Maturín municipality), which is an inactive tar seep deposit emplaced within the Mesa Formation. The specimens consist of two isolated anterior trunk vertebrae, an articulated sequence of six mid-trunk vertebrae and two posterior trunk vertebrae. The vertebrae are attributed to B. constrictor based on the following features: robust and high vertebrae; thick zygosphene with a notched or concave anterior edge; presence of a paracotylar, subcentral and lateral foramina; marked parasagittal ridges; epizygapophyseal process evident on the dorsal surface of the postzygapophyseal articular facets and high blade-like neural spine. The presence of B. constrictor in northern of Venezuela indicates a palaeoenvironment probably like savanna crossed by rivers with riparian forests, and suggests the predominance of a mesothermal climate with a moderate rainfall.

Silvio Y. Onary-Alves [silvioyuji@gmail.com], Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Comparada, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Av. Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14040901, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; Annie S. Hsiou [anniehsiou@ffclrp.usp.br], Laboratório de Paleontologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Av. Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14040901, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; Ascanio D. Rincón [paleosur1974@gmail.com], Laboratorio de Paleontología, Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Carretera Panamericana Km 11, 1020-A Caracas, Venezuela.