Late Miocene ‘οvibovin’ bovids (Mammalia, Bovidae) from Çorakyerler, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Fossil ‘ovibovin’ bovids are described from the Upper Miocene of Çorakyerler (north-central Anatolia). Two taxa have been recognized: the predominant Criotherium argalioides, known by several craniodental remains, and the less common Hezhengia? cf. inundata, documented by a few dentitions. A review of C. argalioides records from Samos and Kemiklitepe D and a thorough comparison with the Çorakyerler sample provides new data on the morphological and metric variability of this taxon, as well as its chronological and geographic range. Hezhengia? cf. inundata from Çorakyerler reveals important similarities with the Garkin (Turkey) taxon, which, in contrast to previous studies, we find more similar to the Chinese Hezhengia than to the Chinese Plesiaddax as originally suggested. The same is true for “Plesiaddax” simplex from Kayadibi (Turkey), which is referred to as Hezhengia? simplex. The co-occurrence of two ‘ovibovin’ bovids of similar size in the same assemblage was previously suspected but never before documented.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Çorakyerler excavations are supported by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Ankara University, and the Turkish Historical Society; we are thankful to all of them. DSK is grateful to D. Geraads, B. Kear, and Q. Shi for providing photographic material and data at their disposal. We thank the editor F. Bibi, D. Geraads, and two anonymous reviewers, for making constructive comments and suggestions leading to an improvement of the manuscript.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

ASE conceived and planned the study, SM gathered field data, measurements, and photographic material, DSK contributed to systematics, data analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors edited the manuscript.

LIST OF SUPPLEMENTARY FILES

Supplementary File 1. List of studied material and cranio-dental measurements of Criotherium argalioides and Hezhengia? cf. inundata from Çorakyerler, Turkey and comparative material: Table S1, List of studied material; Table S2, Cranial measurements; Table S3, Upper toothrow measurements; Table S4, Lower toothrow measurements.