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New Oligocene cyprinid in the central Tibetan Plateau documents the pre-uplift tropical lowlands

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Abstract

A new Oligocene-aged genus and species of cyprinid fish, Tchunglinius tchangii, from the Nima Basin in the center of the Tibetan Plateau is described. The new genus is assigned to the subfamily Cyprininae because of its protractile mouth, spoon-shaped pharyngeal teeth, dorsal fin originating anterior to the insertion of the pelvic fin, dorsal fin with four unbranched rays and anal fin with three unbranched rays. This genus differs from other cyprinine genera on the characteristic combination of large head and low body; also, the head length is larger than the body depth. Other differences include the following: the last unbranched ray of both dorsal and anal fin is smooth and articulated; it has an eight-branched ray in the dorsal fin and a five-branched ray in the anal fin; and it has five supraneurals, five hypurals and 33 vertebrae. Tchunglinius tchangii is closely related to recent small-bodied South-Asian cyprinine genera such as Puntius in small body size; therefore, the fossil reflects the Paleogene tropical–subtropical lowland fish fauna present there before the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Meemann Chang, Chunguang Zhang, Tao Deng, E Zhang, Kevin Conway, Bin Kang, Qiongying Tang, Xianghong Shan, Rohan Pethiyagoda and Maurice Kottelat for advice; Zhao Wang for preparing the fossils; and Wei Gao for taking the photographs. Min Zhao, Guangpu Xie, Qiang Li, Shiqi Wang, Fuqiao Shi, Boyang Sun and Shengli Wu provided field assistance. This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03020104), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41272028), State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (133114).

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  1. College of Life Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Ning Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Feixiang Wu

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  1. Ning Wang
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Correspondence to Ning Wang.

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This article was registered in the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (ZooBank) as 51E3473F-5277-4F7C-A7A0-4231362FC45A and 9BCBECE3-1F3D-402B-8371-1FA96D5D8DD9.

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Wang, N., Wu, F. New Oligocene cyprinid in the central Tibetan Plateau documents the pre-uplift tropical lowlands. Ichthyol Res 62, 274–285 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-014-0438-3

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