The site of Shuitangba (Yunnan, China) preserves a unique, terminal Miocene fauna

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank G.-D. Mao for permission to investigate the Shuitangba lignite mine and for logistical support of fossil retrieval. We also thank Y. Wang (Yuxi Museum) for help in the field, B.-Y. Yuan for geological consultation, J.-J. Zhang (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology) and P.-P. You (Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology) for fossil preparation, C.-W. Liu (Qujing Institute of Cultural Relics) for photography, and L.-Y. Fu (Chuxiong Prefectural Museum) for sorting micromammals. The work undertaken by D.F.S. for this publication was conducted while she was at Bryn Mawr College. Financial support is gratefully acknowledged: from the National Science Foundation (BCS 1035897 to D.F.S. and N.G.J., and BCS 0321893 to F.C. Howell and T. White), from Bryn Mawr College and the American Association of Physical Anthropology to D.F.S., from the Harvard University Center for the Environment to L.J.F., from the Yunnan Natural Science Foundation (grant 2010CC010) and Zhaotong Government to X.J., and from 973 Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2012CB821900 and 40925012 to C.D.). The following institutions and individuals are acknowledged for providing facilities and assistance to the authors for faunal comparisons: American Museum of Natural History (J. Galkin, Vertebrate Paleontology; E. Westwig, Mammalogy) and Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Y. Haile-Selassie and L. Jellema, Physical Anthropology; T. Matson and R. Muehlheim, Vertebrate Zoology). Assistance in identification of fauna was provided by W. Sanders (Proboscidea) and X.-M. Wang (Carnivora). Figure 1 was prepared by G. Chaplin. T. Wilson assisted generously in bibliographic research and in all aspects of figure and manuscript preparation.

Handling editor: Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra.