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First Mexican records of Anthracotheriidae (Mammalia: Artiodactyla)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2023

Eduardo JIMÉNEZ-HIDALGO*
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Paleobiología, Instituto de Recursos, Campus Puerto Escondido, Universidad del Mar, km 2.5 Carretera Puerto Escondido-Sola de Vega, C.P. 71980, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Gerardo CARBOT-CHANONA
Affiliation:
Museo de Paleontología “Eliseo Palacios Aguilera”, Departamento de Paleontología, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente e Historia Natural, Calzada de Las Personas Ilustres, s/n, C.P. 29000, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: eduardojh@zicatela.umar.mx
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Abstract

Anthracotheres are generalised artiodactyls that have an extensive record in the Cenozoic of Eurasia and Africa. In North America they have been collected in middle Eocene to early Miocene localities from the California Coast, the Great Plains and the Gulf Coast of the United States, with a single record from the early Miocene of Panama. Here we report few specimens from the early Oligocene (Ar1) Iniyoo Local Fauna of north-western Oaxaca, and the earliest Miocene of Simojovel de Allende, in northern Chiapas. This material has diverse features that indicate they belonged to the bothriodontine Arretotherium, such as selenodont cristids associated with the protoconid and hypoconid, the absence of a premetacristid, and the crenulated enamel. They share with Arretotherium acridens and Arretotherium meridionale the absence of a mesiolingual metacristid, but their general morphology and size indicate a close relationship to Ar. meridionale. Nevertheless, in absence of better-preserved specimens, we decided not to assign the fossil material to this species. Specimens from Oaxaca and Chiapas are the first records of anthracotheres in Mexico. These new records link the previous ones from temperate North America and tropical Central America and indicate that Anthracotheriidae had a very wide geographical distribution in North America during the Palaeogene and the Neogene. Additionally, they represent the southern-most records of Arretotherium in North America during the Oligocene and the early Miocene.

Information

Type
Spontaneous Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Society of Edinburgh
Figure 0

Figure 1 Map of southern Mexico indicating the location of the Arretotherium localities in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Figure 1

Figure 2 (a) UMPE 193, upper molar from Santiago Yolomécatl in occlusal view; (b) UMPE 1271, anterior part of a lower molar and dentary fragment in occlusal view; (c) lower p4 and m1 of a partial left mandible from Simojovel de Allende; and (d) lower m2 of the same partial left mandible in occlusal view. Scale bars = 10 mm.