A revision ofAceratherium blanfordiLydekker, 1884 (Mammalia: Rhinocerotidae) from the Early Miocene of Pakistan: postcranials as a key

Abstract

Rhinocerotids are particularly abundant and diversified in Neogene deposits of the Indian subcontinent, but their systematics is far from being well defined. Based on the revision of old collections and new findings from the Early Miocene of the Bugti Hills and Zinda Pir, Pakistan, ‘Aceratherium blanfordi Lydekker, 1884’ is a chimera, consisting of two dentally convergent but postcranially distinct rhinocerotid taxa: Pleuroceros blanfordi and Mesaceratherium welcommi sp. nov. Postcranial features appear to be much more diagnostic than craniodental morphology in this case. A phylogenetic analysis based on 282 morphological characters scored for 28 taxa (four outgroups and ingroup including both taxa of interest and a ‘branching group’) strengthens this statement and supports Pleuroceros and Mesaceratherium as monophyletic genera within Rhinocerotinae. Both genera are recognized for the first time outside Europe. In the Bugti Hills, P. blanfordi and M. welcommi are part of an exceptionally diversified rhinocerotid fauna, with up to nine species associated in the same locality (Kumbi 4f). This rhinocerotid assemblage confirms the earliest Miocene age (Agenian/Aquitanian) of the upper member of the Chitarwata Formation as a whole. Coeval homotaxic rhinocerotid faunas from Europe (France, Czech Republic) and East Africa (Uganda, Kenya) support broad and sustainable rhinocerotid interchanges amongst South Asia, Europe, and Africa under compatible environmental conditions throughout earliest Miocene times. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 160, 139–194.

A new genus of Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Oligocene of Europe

“…Ghost lineages are inferred within Rhinocerotinae (Fig. 7), due to the absence in the present taxonomic sampling of early terminals such as the earliest representative of Plesiaceratherium (P. naricum, earliest Miocene of Pakistan; Antoine et al 2010 …”

“…The in-group sensu stricto includes the earliest European rhinocerotid Ronzotherium filholi (Osborn, 1900) (Cuvier, 1822), from the Early Miocene of Western Europe, and P. albigense (Roman, 1912), from the 'middle' Oligocene of Europe, were also considered in the analysis in order to test the monophyly of the concerned genus, recently challenged in the phylogeny proposed by Antoine et al (2010).…”

“…The dataset (character list, character states) derives from that of Antoine (2002Antoine ( , 2003 and Antoine et al (2003bAntoine et al ( , 2010. It was reduced to 214 morphological characters (36 cranial, eight mandibular, 85 dental and 85 postcranial), as 68 characters from the original matrices were phylogenetically uninformative for the present taxonomic sample and therefore were removed prior to the analysis.…”

Large mammals from Rickenbach (Switzerland, reference locality MP29, Late Oligocene): biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental implications

“…Material for comparison is housed in UCBL-FSL (Université Claude Bernard, Faculté des Sciences de Lyon), MNHN (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle de Paris), and USTL (Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier). The descriptions, measurements, and diagnostic characters follow Scherler et al (2011) for tapirids, andHeissig (1969), Guérin (1980), Antoine (2002), and Antoine et al (2010) for rhinocerotids. Lihoreau (2003) and Boisserie et al (2010) determined the methodology for bunodont cetartiodactyls (anthracotheres and suoids), and the terminology and biometry for ruminants follow Bärmann and Rössner (2011) and Köhler (1993).…”

New fossils of Gaindatherium (Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia) from the Middle Miocene of Pakistan

“…Among mammals, fossil rhinocerotids from the Siwaliks and other Pakistani areas are very abundant and diversified (Lydekker, 1881(Lydekker, , 1884Colbert, 1934Colbert, , 1935Forster-Cooper, 1934;Heissig, 1972;Cerdeño and Hussain, 1997;Antoine and Welcomme, 2000;Antoine et al, 2003Antoine et al, , 2010. The recent revision of unpublished specimens from the Siwaliks (Khan, 2009) revealed the presence of new material of Alicornops, Chilotherium, and Gaindatherium from different areas of the Potwar Plateau.…”