Publication Cover
Historical Biology
An International Journal of Paleobiology
Volume 33, 2021 - Issue 12
189
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

The Chalicotheriidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the upper Miocene Nakali Formation, Kenya

ORCID Icon, , , &
Pages 3522-3529 | Received 28 Nov 2020, Accepted 08 Jan 2021, Published online: 31 Jan 2021
 

ABSTRACT

Two upper molars of the Chalicotheriidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the upper Miocene (ca. 10 Ma) Nakali Formation of Nakali, central Kenya, are described. One is identified as M2. The other is very fragmentary and is tentatively referred to the same species as the M2. The M2 specimen is assigned to the subfamily Schizotheriinae in having a crown longer than wide and higher than that of the Chalicotheriinae. It is morphologically similar to upper molars of late Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene species of the Schizotheriinae such as Ancylotherium pentelicum and Ancylotherium hennigi. Metrically, the M2 is within the range of A. pentelicum, resulting an identification as Ancylotherium cf. pentelicum. This result suggests that the fossil record of this genus in Africa dates back to ca. 10 Ma. Previous and present studies suggest that Miocene African Ancylotherium would have been in forest-dominated environments. African and Eurasian fossil records of Ancylotherium suggest that the dispersal of this genus from Eurasia into Africa would have occurred before ca. 10 Ma, although more African fossil records are needed to confirm this.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), the Government of Kenya and the National Museums of Kenya for research permission. We thank the staff of the National Museums of Kenya for assistance in the museum. The first author is grateful to Christine Argot (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France) and Gertrud Rößner (Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany) for providing access to specimens for the comparative works. We wish to thank Editor in chief Gareth Dyke and two anonymous reviewers, whose comments improved the original manuscript. 

Disre statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) KAKENHI [22255006, 25257408, 16H02757 to M. Nakatsukasa, and 18K13648 to N. Handa].

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 471.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.