Swiss Journal of Palaeontology

, Volume 131, Issue 2, pp 275–281 | Cite as

New fossil record of Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi (Carnivora: Hyaenidae) from Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot, Pakistan

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Abstract

New dental material—one maxilla bearing P3 and P4—of Early Pliocene hyaenid Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi from the Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot is described and discussed. The presence of this hyaenid from the Early Pliocene (Ruscinian equivalent) deposits at Hasnot is an important fossil record of this species from the Siwalik continental deposits of Pakistan. The purpose of the paper is to provide more information about the fossil record and its stratigraphic extension from Late Miocene to Early Pliocene from the Siwalik continental deposits.

Keywords

Hyaenidae Dental material Early Pliocene Fossil record Stratigraphic extension 

Abbreviations

UZ

Punjab University Paleontological Collection stored in Zoology Department, Lahore, Pakistan

IVPP

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China

PMU

University of Uppsala Museum of Evolution, Uppsala, Sweden

P3

Upper third premolar

P4

Upper fourth premolar

L

Maximal anteroposterior length

LmP4

P4 metastyle length

LpP4

P4 paracone length

W

Maximal transverse width

WaP4

Anterior P4 width at protocone and parastyle

WblP4

P4 width between paracone and metastyle

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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Zhijie Jack Tseng for the preliminary identification, Lars Werdelin for kindly providing his dataset of fossil hyaenid measurements for our comparison, and for his detailed reading of the manuscript. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions for the improvement of manuscript. The first author is grateful to Raja M. Ibrahim and his team (COMSATS Library Information Services) for their efforts to provide the necessary literature for this manuscript. Finally, the contribution of M. Farooq Iqbal for GIS services and comparative studies is appreciated. This research has been supported by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan (grant No. 20-898/R & D/07) to Abdul Ghaffar (Vertebrate evolution, Biogeographic relationships and Paleoenvironments of the Siwaliks of Pakistan).

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Copyright information

© Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz (SCNAT) 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of MeteorologyCOMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT)IslamabadPakistan
  2. 2.Department of Zoology, Quaid-i-Azam CampusUniversity of the Punjab (PU)LahorePakistan

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