ABSTRACT
Fieldwork in the 1990s produced a few records of carnivorous mammals (creodonts and carnivorans) in the early Oligocene through early Miocene of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China. Although only five taxa are known so far, most represented by fragmentary material, the new carnivore assemblage is unique and shows little resemblance to faunas elsewhere in eastern Asia. The early Oligocene record is represented by a single premolar of a Hyaenodon, referable to H. pervagus. In the early Miocene, a new species of Hyaenodon, H. weilini sp. nov., represented by several cheek teeth, is the last record of this genus in east Asia. A horizontal ramus of an amphicyonid, here identified as Ictiocyon cf. I. socialis, is the first record of this taxon in Asia, and a very small musteloid lower carnassial, although difficult to identify to genus, is clearly a new record because nothing of this small size has been known in Asia. The overall faunal composition seems to suggest affinity with northern Eurasia rather than southern Asia.
Xiaoming Wang. Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90007, United States
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 643, Beijing 100044, China.
Zhanxiang Qiu. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 643, Beijing 100044, China.
Banyue Wang. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 643, Beijing 100044, China.
KEY WORDS: Creodonta; Carnivora; Oligocene; Miocene; Gansu; China
PE Article Number: 8.1.6
Copyright: Society of Vertebrate
Paleontology May 2005
Submission: 1 July 2004. Acceptance: 4 April 2005
