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The Eocene terrestrial mammal from Timor, Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Stéphane Ducrocq
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, UMR 5554 CNRS, Case Courrier 064, Université Montpellier II, Place E. Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France

Abstract

Recent results in the geological history of Indonesia indicate that Timor island (Indonesia) has a Gondwanian origin and emerged about 3.5 Ma ago. The Palaeogene anthracothere artiodactyl described by von Koenigswald in 1967 from this island cannot be autochthonous because of its Laurasiatic affinities. The geological history and structure of Timor is summarized, and the origins of the occurrence of this anthracothere (a floating carcass washed up on the Eocene formations of Timor, a continental Asian fossil recently brought by traders, and an hypothetic partial Asian origin of Timor) are discussed.

Type
Rapid Communication
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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