Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T11:07:26.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A new prosciurine rodent from Shantung Province, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

John M. Rensberger
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98195
Li Chuan-Kuei
Affiliation:
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 643, Beijing, China

Abstract

A lower molar of a new species of rodent, Prosciurus? shantungensis, from the subsurface of eastern China adds to the diversity of the known Asian prosciurine aplodontids and increases the likelihood that aplodontids were widespread in Eurasia during the Oligocene. This form is structurally close to the North American prosciurine aplodontids, especially Prosciurus relictus from the middle Oligocene. The metaconid is strongly compressed and reduced in height, a condition partially developed in P. relictus but here more extreme. Height of the mesoconid and the degree of lophodonty are more advanced than in North American species of Prosciurus. P.? shantungensis differs from the prosciurine-like lower dentitions from Kazakhstan and Mongolia described by Argyropulo (1939) and Kowalski (1974) in crest development and in details of the cusp morphology. Types of the Asian prosciurine or presumed prosciurine species are upper dentitions for which associated lower dentitions are unknown, yet the slope of the crests in Prosciurus lohiculus is too low to match the occlusal surface in P.? shantungensis and the degree of lophodonty in P. arboraptus is less than would be expected for the upper dentition of the Shantung form.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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

Argyropulo, A. I. 1939. Sciuromorpha and Dipodidae (Glires, Mammalia) in the Tertiary of Kazakhstan. Comptes Rendus (Doklady) de l'Académie des Sciences de l'URSS, 25:171175.Google Scholar
Black, C. C. 1965. Fossil mammals from Montana. Part 2. Rodents from the Early Oligocene Pipestone Springs Local Fauna. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 38:148.Google Scholar
Black, C. C. 1971. Paleontology and geology of the Bad-water Creek area, central Wyoming. Part 7. Rodents of the Family Ischyromyidae. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 43:179217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, E. 1902. Fossil Mammalia of the White River Beds of Montana. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 20:237279.Google Scholar
Emry, R. J. 1973. Stratigraphy and preliminary biostratigraphy of the Flagstaff Rim area, Natrona Country, Wyoming. Smithsonian Contributions in Paleobiology, 18:143.Google Scholar
Filhol, H. 1883. Description d'un nouveau genre de Rongeurs provenant des Phosphorites du Quercy (Plesispermophilus). Bulletin, Socíeté Philomathique de Paris, series 7, 7:99100.Google Scholar
Galbreath, E. C. 1953. A contribution to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of northeastern Colorado. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Vertebrata, 4:1120.Google Scholar
Kowalski, K. 1974. Middle Oligocene rodents from Mongolia, p. 147178. In Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia (ed.), Results of the Polish-Mongolian Paleontological Expeditions—part V, Palaeontologia Polonica, 30.Google Scholar
Macdonald, J. R. 1963. The Miocene faunas from the Wounded Knee area of western South Dakota. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 125:141238.Google Scholar
Macdonald, J. R. 1970. Review of the Miocene Wounded Knee faunas of southwestern South Dakota. Bulletin of the Los Angeles County Museum Science, 8:182.Google Scholar
Matthew, W.D. 1903. The fauna of the Titanotherium beds at Pipestone Springs, Montana. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 19:197226.Google Scholar
Matthew, W.D. and Granger, W. 1923. Nine new rodents from the Oligocene of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates, 102:110.Google Scholar
Rensberger, J. M. 1975. Haplomys and its bearing on the origin of the aplodontoid rodents. Journal of Mammalogy, 56:114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rensberger, J. M. 1983. Successions of meniscomyine and allomyine rodents (Aplodontidae) in the Oligo-Miocene John Day Formation, Oregon. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 124:1157.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Kittler, N. and Vianey-Liaud, M. 1979. Evolution des Aplodontidae Oligocenes Européens. Palaeovertebrata, 9:3182.Google Scholar
Schlosser, M. 1924. Tertiary vertebrates from Mongolia. Palaeontologia Sinica, series C, 1:1119.Google Scholar
Shevyreva, N. S. 1971a. Novye sredneoligotsenovie gryzuni Kazakhstana i Mongolii (New middle Oligocene rodents of Kazakhstan and Mongolia). Akademia Nauk, SSSR, Paleontologicheskii Institut Trudi, 130:7086.Google Scholar
Shevyreva, N. S. 1971b. Pervaja naxodka v SSSR gryzunov semeistva Mylagaulidae (First find in the Soviet Union of the rodent family Mylagaulidae). Soobshchenia Akademii Nauk, Gruzinskoi SSR, 62:481483.Google Scholar
Stehlin, H. G. and Schaub, S. 1951. Die Trigonodontie der simplicidentaten Nager. Schweizerische Palaeontologische Abhandlungen, 67:1385.Google Scholar
Storer, J. E. 1978. Rodents of the Calf Creek Local Fauna (Cypress Hills Formation, Oligocene, Chadronian). Contributions of the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, 1:154.Google Scholar
Viret, J. and Casoli, M. 1961. Sur un Rongeur de la famille américaine des Aplodontidés découvert dans le Stampien supérieur de la Limagne bourbonnaise. Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae, 54:541545.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. W. 1949. Early Tertiary rodents of North America. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publications, 584:67164.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1962. The early Tertiary rodents of the Family Paramyidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 52:1261.Google Scholar
Wood, A. E. 1980. The Oligocene rodents of North America. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 70(5):168.Google Scholar