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The first haramiyoid mammal from Asia

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Abstract

A lower molar of a haramiyoid mammal is described from the Toutunhe Formation of Liuhuanggou near Urumqi in the southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China. It is referred to Eleutherodon sp., otherwise exclusively known from the Upper Bathonian of England. It is the first record of the order Haramiyida from Asia and the first Mesozoic mammal described from the southern Junggar Basin. Apart from the English specimens of Eleutherodon and Staffia from the Upper Jurassic of East Africa, it is the geologically youngest haramiyoid known. It is the first vertebrate taxon from the Toutunhe Formation that is probably not endemic and lends some support to the dating of the Formation as late Middle Jurassic, probably Bathonian.

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Notes

  1. Sino German Project collection, currently housed at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The collection remains the property of the People’s Republic of China and will be transferred to a public Chinese collection after the scientific studies are finished. The final repository will be announced in an internationally accessible journal.

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Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks go to the team of the Geological Survey no. 1 and our Chinese co-workers from the Nanjing Institute and Jilin University, for their hospitality, friendship, and logistic help. F. Lörcher (Dotternhausen) assisted in the excavations and discovered the specimen. This project was financed by the DFG, Max Planck Society, and NSFC, whose financial support is gratefully acknowledged. M. Montenari (Tübingen) is very much thanked for the SEM photographs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut und Museum für Geologie und Paläontologie, Sigwartstr. 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Michael W. Maisch, Andreas T. Matzke, Franziska Grossmann, Henrik Stöhr & Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner

  2. Research Center of Paleontology, Jilin University, 6 Xi-Minzhu Street, 130026, Changchung, China

    Ge Sun

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  1. Michael W. Maisch
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  2. Andreas T. Matzke
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  3. Franziska Grossmann
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  4. Henrik Stöhr
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  5. Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner
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  6. Ge Sun
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Correspondence to Michael W. Maisch.

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Maisch, M.W., Matzke, A.T., Grossmann, F. et al. The first haramiyoid mammal from Asia. Naturwissenschaften 92, 40–44 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-004-0584-y

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