Gazella (Bovidae, Ruminantia) remains from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan

Abstract

Khan, M.A., Babar, M.A., Akhtar, M., Iliopoulos, G., Rakha, A. & Noor, T., November 2015. Gazella (Bovidae, Ruminantia) remains from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

New gazelle fossils are described from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. The material includes horncores, maxilla and mandible fragments, and isolated teeth. The available samples are assigned to three Gazella species: Gazella sp. in the Lower Siwalik Subgroup (ca 14.2–11.2 Ma), and G. lydekkeri and G. superba in the Middle Siwalik Subgroup (ca 10.2–3.4 Ma). Based on a review of the Siwalik Group gazelles, G. padriensis is synonymized with G. lydekkeri. Gazella superba Pilgrim, 1939 sensu stricto is a large form and is a valid species of the genus in the Siwalik Group.

Muhammad Akbar Khan [[email protected]], Muhammad Adeeb Babar [[email protected]], Muhammad Akhtar [[email protected]], Allah Rakha [[email protected]], Tuba Noor [[email protected]], Abu Bakr Fossil Display & Research Centre, Department of Zoology, Quid-e-Azam Campus, Punjab University (54590), Lahore, Pakistan; George Iliopoulos [[email protected]], Geology Department of the University of Patras, Patras, Greece.

Key words:

• Antelopes
• gazelle
• Chinji
• Nagri
• Dhok Pathan
• Miocene
• Pliocene
• Indian subcontinent

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dimitris S. Kostopoulos and A. W. Gentry for providing literature. Moreover, Dimitris S. Kostopoulos and Eva Verena Bärmann kindly gave helpful comments and corrected an early version of the manuscript. We are grateful for the very helpful comments by the reviewers. We express our sincere gratitude to Stephen McLoughlin (Chief Editor, Alcheringa) for his critical reading and helpful comments on the manuscript. Anaar Khan (Hasnot), Saeed Qazi (Padhri) and Sajjad Shah (Dhok Pathan) are thanked for their fieldwork assistance and hospitality.