Naturwissenschaften

, Volume 96, Issue 8, pp 911–920 | Cite as

Listriodon guptai Pilgrim, 1926 (Mammalia, Suidae) from the early Miocene of the Bugti Hills, Balochistan, Pakistan: new insights into early Listriodontinae evolution and biogeography

  • Maeva Judith Orliac
  • Pierre-Olivier Antoine
  • Grégoire Métais
  • Laurent Marivaux
  • Jean-Yves Crochet
  • Jean-Loup Welcomme
  • Syed Rafiqul Hassan Baqri
  • Ghazala Roohi
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

New dental remains of listriodont suids are described from the lower member of the early to middle Miocene Vihowa Formation of the Bugti Hills, Pakistan. The material is homogeneous in terms of morphology and dimensions and referred as a whole to Listriodon guptai Pilgrim, 1926. This species is also mentioned in coeval deposits of the Zinda Pir Dome, Pakistan, dating back to ca. 19 Ma. The early occurrence of an advanced listriodont in Pakistan constrains the age of acquisition of several characters correlated to lophodonty within Listriodontini, and raises major questions about the early history of the Old World Listriodontinae. Strong morphological similarity between Listriodon guptai and the African species Listriodon akatikubas found in the late early Miocene of Maboko (Kenya, ca. 16.5 Ma) suggests that this latter is most probably a migrant originating from Asia.

Keywords

Listriodontinae Lophodonty Bugti Hills Vihowa Formation Early Orleanian 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We dedicate this article to the late Léonard Ginsburg, who traveled the world during decades as a vertebrate paleontologist and whose last field trip was in the Bugti Hills in 1997. This article is also dedicated to the memory of Nawab M. A. K. Bugti, Lord of the Bugti tribes. We are also indebted to Dario De Franceschi, Francis Duranthon, Marc Delcorso, Jérôme Proriol, Mouloud Benammi, Ibrahim Baloch, Jean-Jacques Jaeger, and Yaowalak Chaimanee for their participation in field expeditions in the Bugti Hills (1995–2004). We are grateful to H. E. Iqbal Akhund and Kamal Majidullah (Karachi) for their indefeasible support. We thank Monte McCrossin for having granted access to unpublished specimens from Maboko, but also Claire Sagne, Christine Argot, and Pascal Tassy (MNHN, Paris) who granted access to the collections they are in charge of. MPFB Publication MPFB no. 40. This research was supported by the French ANR-PALASIAFRICA program (ANR-08-JCJC-0011-01-ANR-ERC).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  • Maeva Judith Orliac
    • 1
  • Pierre-Olivier Antoine
    • 2
  • Grégoire Métais
    • 3
  • Laurent Marivaux
    • 1
  • Jean-Yves Crochet
    • 1
  • Jean-Loup Welcomme
    • 1
  • Syed Rafiqul Hassan Baqri
    • 4
  • Ghazala Roohi
    • 4
  1. 1.Institut des Sciences de l’EvolutionUniversité de Montpellier2MontpellierFrance
  2. 2.Institut des Sciences de la TerreToulouseFrance
  3. 3.Muséum National d’Histoire NaturelleParisFrance
  4. 4.Pakistan Museum of Natural HistoryIslamabadPakistan

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