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ABSTRACT
Gnatho-dental specimens of the anthracotheres (Mammalia; Artiodactyla) from the four Neogene localities of central Myanmar are described. Four species of anthracotheres are recognized in the Neogene of central Myanmar: Microbunodon silistrensis and a small bothriodontine from the middle Miocene; and Microbunodon milaensis and Merycopotamus dissimilis from the latest Miocene to Pliocene. This discovery extends the temporal range of Microbunodon up to the Pliocene. The co-occurrence of forest-dwelling Microbunodon and grass-eating and semi-aquatic Me. dissimilis reinforces that central Myanmar was less arid and had a wider range of habitats than the northern Indian Subcontinent during the Pliocene. This implies the possibility that Pliocene Southeast Asia might have been a refugium for some late Miocene forest-dwelling ungulates.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Aung-Aung-Kyaw, Hla-Swe, and other personnel of the Department of Archaeology (Ministry of Culture) of Myanmar for the permission of our fossil research in Myanmar. We thank J. Meng and J. Galkin (American Museum of Natural History, New York), P. A. Holroyd (University of California, Berkeley, California), C. Argot, M. Pickford, B. Senut, P. Tassy, and C. Sagne (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris), K. Seymour and B. Iwama (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto), H. Bryant (Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Regina), Y. Wang and X. Jin (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing), and D. Brinkman (Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven) for graciously providing access to the specimens examined at their respective institutions. Financial supports were provided by the MEXT Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research to T.T. (no. 21770265), M.T. (nos. 16405018, 20405015), and to N.E. (no. 23370044), by the MEXT Grant-in-Aid for the 21st Century COE Program A14 to Kyoto University, and by the MEXT Global COE Program A06 to Kyoto University.
Handling editor: Blaire Van Valkenburgh