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Mammals from the Late Jurassic Qigu Formation in the Southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China

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Abstract

Five mammalian taxa based on teeth and jaw fragments are reported from a bonebed of the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) Qigu Formation at the Liuhuanggou site in the southern Junggar Basin. The mammals recovered to date comprise a new eleutherodontid haramiyid, the docodonts Dsungarodon and Tegotherium, an undetermined amphilestid triconodont, and a new species of the stem zatherian Nanolestes and represent the most diverse Late Jurassic mammal assemblage of Asia. The Liuhuanggou mammal assemblage is dominated by docodonts. Acuodulodon Hu et al., 2007 from the upper part of the Shishugou Formation (Oxfordian) of the Wucaiwan area in the central Junggar Basin is a junior synonym of Dsungarodon Pfretzschner and Martin, 2005. Tegotherium has been reported from the Late Jurassic Shar Teeg locality in Mongolia. With the exception of the common occurrence of Nanolestes, the mammalian assemblage from the Late Jurassic of the Guimarota coal mine (Portugal) is quite different from that of the Late Jurassic Qigu Formation. The Guimarota assemblage is dominated by five genera of dryolestidans and several genera of multituberculates, which have not been reported from the Qigu assemblage. The known Late Jurassic mammalian assemblages of Asia are similar to the Middle Jurassic assemblages known from Asia and elsewhere in the world.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Sun Ge, director of the Paleontological Museum Liaoning, of the Paleontological Institute of Shenyang Normal University, and of the Key-lab for Evolution of Past Life and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China for his long-term help and support. Prof. Zuo Xue-Yi, head of the Information Division of the Geological Bureau of Xinjiang in Urumqi, at the time director of the Xinjiang Geological Survey No. 1, and his staff provided extensive technical support of our fieldwork. Prof. L. P. Tatarinov kindly permitted us to use the SEM figures of Tegotherium gubini. Christian Dechert, Juliane Hinz, Kristina Hippe, Roland Kersting, and Dr. Yue-Wu Sun helped in the field, and Kai Jäger, Franziska Kiebach, Anke Küttner, Jacqueline Langer, Leonie Lenssen, Achim Schwermann, and Nadine Siegling picked the concentrate. Georg Oleschinski took the SEM photographs and Dorothea Kranz (both Bonn) provided the artwork. We thank Matthew Borths (Stony Brook) for proofreading the English. The paper benefitted from constructive review comments by Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo (Pittsburgh) and an anonymous reviewer. The project was funded by technical grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG MA 1643/11 to TM and PF 219/21 to HUP) and by the Sino-German Centre. The work of AA was supported by the Russian Fund of Basic Researches grant 07-04-00393а and the Russian Science Support Foundation.

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  1. Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie, Universität Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Thomas Martin

  2. Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    Alexander O. Averianov

  3. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Tübingen, Sigwartstraße 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner

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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Triassic-Jurassic biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China”.

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Martin, T., Averianov, A.O. & Pfretzschner, HU. Mammals from the Late Jurassic Qigu Formation in the Southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 90, 295–319 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-010-0030-4

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