Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:46:38.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Audley-Charles, M. G. 1991. Tectonics of the New Guinea Area. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 19, 1741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, C. C. 1978. Anthracotheriidae. In Evolution of African Mammals (eds Maglio, V. J. and Cooke, H. B. S.), pp. 423–34. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buffetaut, E. 1987. A Short History of Vertebrate Palaeontology. Wolfeboro: Croom Helm, 223 pp.Google Scholar
Chow, M. 1957. On some Eocene and Oligocene mammals from Kwangsi and Yunnan. Vertebrata Palasiatica 1, 201–13.Google Scholar
Colbert, E. H. 1938. Fossil mammals from Burma in the American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 74, 255436.Google Scholar
Cuvier, G. 1822. Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles, 2nd ed., t. 4. Paris: Dufour et d’Ocagne, 687 pp.Google Scholar
Ducrocq, S. 1994. Les anthracothères paléogènes de Thaïlande: paléogéographie et phylogénie. Comptes Rendus de l’Académic des Sciences, Paris 318, 549–54.Google Scholar
Ducrocq, S. In press. The Anthracotheriidae from the Upper Eocene of Thailand. Palaeontographica.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. W. & Hooker, J. J. 1988. The phylogeny of the Artiodactyla. In The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods, Volume 2: Mammals (ed Benton, M. J.), pp. 235–72. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1993. Oligocene age of the Gebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum, Egypt. Journal of Human Evolution 24, 207–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartenberger, J.-L. 1982. Exemples de données géophysiques et paléontologiques antinomiques dans le Tertiaire ancien. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 24, 927–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchison, C. S. 1989. Geological Evolution of South-East Asia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 368 pp.Google Scholar
Jaeger, J.-J., Courtillot, V. & Tapponnier, P. 1989. Paleontological views of the ages of the Deccan Traps, the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, and the India–Asia collision. Geology 17, 316–19.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, J. R. 1956. The North American anthracotheres. Journal of Paleontology 30, 615–45.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, D. T., Bown, T. M. & Simons, E. L. 1992. The Eocene–Oligocene transition in continental Africa. In Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution (eds Prothero, D. R. and Berggren, W. A.), pp. 548–66. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, D. E. & Zhai, R.-J. 1987. The Paleogene of Asia: mammals and stratigraphy. Mémoires du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sciences de la Terre 52, 1488.Google Scholar
Sahni, A., Kumar, K., Hartenberger, J.-L., Jaeger, J.-J., Rage, J.-C., Sudre, J. & Vianey-Liaud, M. 1982. Microvertébrés nouveaux des Trapps du Deccan (Indes): mise en évidence d'une voie de communication terrestre entre la Laurasie et l’Inde à la limite Crétacé–Tertiaire. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 24, 1093–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. G., Smith, D. G. & Funnell, B. M. 1994. Atlas of Mesozoic and Cenozoic Coastlines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 99 pp.Google Scholar
Stromer, E. 1931. Die ersten alttertiären Säugetierreste aus den Sunda-Inseln. Dienst van den Mijnbouw in Nederlandsch-Indie 17, 1114.Google Scholar
Stucky, R. K. 1992. Mammalian faunas in North America of Bridgerian to early Arikareean “Ages” (Eocene and Oligocene). In Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution (eds Prothero, D. R. and Berggren, W. A.), pp. 464–93. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Couvering, J. A. & Harris, J. A. 1991. Late Eocene age of Fayum mammal faunas. Journal of Human Evolution 21, 241–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von Koenigswald, G. H. R. 1967. An Upper Eocene mammal of the family Anthracotheriidae from the island of Timor, IndonesiaM. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen 70, 529–33.Google Scholar