Post by thesporerex on Dec 31, 2013 15:52:09 GMT
Chasmaporthetes gangsriensis
www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-chasmaporthetes-gangsriensis-hyena-tibet-01646.html
A new Hyena specie found in Tibet that lived 4.9-4.1 million years ago.
“Chasmaporthetes gangsriensis is morphologically the most basal Pliocene Chasmaporthetes in China, and is consistent with the ‘out of Tibet’ hypothesis for some Pleistocene megafauna”, said Dr Zhijie Jack Tseng of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and University of Southern California, who is the lead author of a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Chasmaporthetes gangsriensis is the smaller among Plio-Pleistocene Eurasian species of the genus.
“The discovery of this cursorial hyaenid species provides additional evidence for open environments in the western Himalayan foothills no later than the Pliocene, as consistent with previous evidence from Zanda Basin’s fossil horses and herbivore enamel isotope analyses,” said study co-author Dr Qiang Li from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Dr Li added: “recent field work in the Zanda Basin in southwestern Tibetan Plateau has provided new fossil evidence of vertebrate faunas spanning the late Miocene to Pleistocene, which represents new occurrences hitherto unknown in that region of Asia and allows the establishment of a faunal sequence in the basin for the first time.”
“recent field work in the Zanda Basin in southwestern Tibetan Plateau has provided new fossil evidence of vertebrate faunas spanning the late Miocene to Pleistocene, which represents new occurrences hitherto unknown in that region of Asia and allows the establishment of a faunal sequence in the basin for the first time.”
Partial left maxilla of Chasmaporthetes gangsriensis. Scale bar – 20 mm. Image credit: Tseng ZJ et al.
Tseng ZJ et al. 2013. A New Cursorial Hyena from Tibet, and Analysis of Biostratigraphy, Paleozoogeography, and Dental Morphology of Chasmaporthetes (Mammalia, Carnivora). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(6): 1457-1471; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2013.775142