A muroid rodent of Asian affinity from the Miocene of Kenya

Abstract

A new genus and species, Na k alimys la vocati, is described from the Nakali locality, Kenya, of about 10 Ma. This muroid rodent is assigned to the Rhizomyidae and is most similar to Kanisamys indicus from the Miocene of Pakistan, with which it was originally considered congeneric. Nakalimys, with other rodents and vertebrates, points to interchange between eastern Africa and southern Asia earlier than 10 Ma , before a more recent period of strong faunal similarity at about the beginning ofthe Pliocene. Nakalimys possesses many primitive characters, but was not directly ancestral to fossil and extant Ta chvoryctes of Africa.

A comprehensive phylogeny of extinct and extant Rhizomyinae (Rodentia): evidence for multiple intercontinental dispersals

“…The morphology of the teeth of fossil rhizomyines has been described in detail (Colbert, 1933, 1935; Teilhard de Chardin, 1942; Bohlin, 1946; Colbert and Hooijer, 1953; Black, 1972; Jacobs, 1978; Sabatier, 1978, 1979, 1982; Brandy, 1979a,b; Munthe, 1980; De Bruijn et al., 1981; Flynn, 1982a,b, 1983, 1993, 2009; Flynn and Qi, 1982; Wessels et al., 1982, 2003, 2008; Flynn et al., 1983, 1990; Sen, 1983; Flynn and Sabatier, 1984; Mein and Ginsburg, 1985, 1997; Tong and Jaeger, 1993; Lindsay, 1996; Wessels and de Bruijn, 2001; Wesselman et al., 2009; López‐Antoñanzas and Wesselman, in press). Therefore in this work we describe the teeth of only the three modern genera, and give a short historical background for the fossil ones as well as some pertinent additional details.…”

Late Miocene to Pliocene carbon isotope record of differential diet change among East African herbivores

“…Additional details of the sampling and analytical methods are provided in SI Appendix. Taxonomic identification of mammalian fauna from the Nakali, Namurungule, Nawata, and (Lothagam) Nachukui formations is presented in SI Appendix, Table S2, and reviewed in SI Appendix (18,30,(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51). We analyzed fossil enamel from large herbivores listed in SI Appendix, Table S1.…”

Are the Rhizomyinae and the Spalacinae closely related? Contradistinctive conclusions between genetics and palaeontology

“…Although the postcranial skeleton of Prokanisamys is not known, it is assumed that the species of that genus were not fossorial (Flynn 1982(Flynn , 1985, an assumption supported by its wide geographical range. The adaptation to a fossorial life-style in the rhizomyines of southeast Asia seems to have taken place during the early late Miocene, and in the tachyoryctines of northeast Africa during the late Miocene and the Pliocene (Flynn 1982(Flynn , 1990Flynn and Sabatier 1984;Tong and Jaeger 1992;Wesselman et al 2009). The rather poor fossil record of the African rhizomyines-there is no record of the group between the early Miocene Prokanisamys sp.…”

“…3,4,5 and 6). Eumyarion kowalskii, a species which plays an important role in our discussion, has been transferred by (Lindsay 1996), 3 Prokanisamys arifi, Banda daud Shah, Pakistan (De Bruijn et al 1981), 4 Prokanisamys arifi and P. major, Gaj River, Pakistan (Wessels and De Bruijn 2001), 5 Prokanisamys sp., Jebel Zelten, Libya (Wessels et al 2003), 6 Heramys eviensis, Aliveri, Greece (Klein Hofmeijer and De Bruijn 1985), 7 Heramys sp., Sibnica, Serbia (Marković 2003), 8 Debruijnia arpati, Keseköy, northeast Anatolia (Ünay 1996), 9 Debruijnia sp., Söke, Dededag, western Anatolia (Sen and Sarica 2011), 10 Pliospalax sp., Karydia, northeastern Greece (Theocharopoulos 2000); 11 Pliospalax sp., Antonios, northeastern Greece (Vasileiadou and Koufos 2005) (Flynn 1982), 20 Tachyoryctes makooka, Digiba Dora, Ethiopia (Wesselman et al 2009), 21 Miorhizomys nagrii, M. tetrachorax, Lufeng, China (Flynn and Qi 1982;Flynn 2009), 22 Nakalimys lavocati, Nakali, Kenya (Flynn and Sabatier 1984), 23 Rhizomyides carbonelli, Pul-e Charki, Afghanistan (Brandy 1979), Rhizomyides mirzadi, Bamian Basin, Afghanistan (Lang and Lavocat 1968), 24 Brachyrhizomys shajius, Yushe Basin, China (Flynn 1993 Ünay, 1978 Middle Miocene Anatolia Pliospalax marmarensis Ünay, 1990 Middle Miocene Anatolia Pliospalax incliniformis (Sarıca and Sen, 2003) Late Miocene Anatolia Pliospalax sinapensis (Sarıca and Sen, 2003) Late Miocene Anatolia Pliospalax berdikensis (Sen and Sarıca, 2011) Middle Miocene Anatolia Pliospalax complicatus Sen and Sarıca, 2011 Late Wood, 1937 Middle and Late Miocene Pakistan, India Kanisamys sivalensis Wood, 1937 Middle and Late Miocene India, Pakistan Kanisamys nagrii Prasad, 1968 Late Miocene India, Pakistan Kanisamys potwarensis Flynn, 1982 Middle and Late Miocene India, Pakistan …”