Maung

Late Pliocene rodents from the Irrawaddy sediments of central Myanmar and their palaeogeographical significance

The Upper Pliocene Irrawaddy sediments in the Gwebin area of central Myanmar recently yielded a rodent assemblage that contains nine species belonging to four families: four species of Muridae, three of Hystricidae, one of Spalacidae, and one of Sciuridae. The murids consist of Hapalomys cf. longicaudatus, Maxomys pliosurifer sp. nov., Rattus jaegeri and cf. Rattus sp. indet., which include both extinct and extant forms. Maxomys pliosurifer is relatively similar to Maxomys surifer that lives in South-East Asia in terms of tooth morphology but retains plesiomorphic features shared with the ancestral rat, Karnimata, and possible sister genera of Maxomys, such as Ratchaburimys and Millardia. The three hystricids belong to the genus Hystrix and consist of two extinct brachydont species (Hystrix paukensis and Hystrix sp. indet.) and one hypsodont species similar to living form (Hystrix cf. brachyura). This finding indicates that primitive brachydont species and derived hypsodont species of Hystrix had likely coexisted in the locality, but the brachydont species are significantly more common amongst specimens collected from the Gwebin area. The spalacid species is Cannomys cf. badius and the sciurid species is Menetes sp. indet. These two rodents are similar to living species in continental South-East Asia although they show minor differences in tooth characteristics compared to the living forms. Some species and genera of the fossil rodent assemblage from the Gwebin area also occur in Upper Pliocene localities of Thailand, suggesting chronological correlation between these two faunas. Moreover, these fossil rodent assemblages are composed primarily of the species distributed endemically in continental South-East Asia. Late Pliocene rodents of continental South-East Asia were affected by river barriers that formed during the Mio-Pliocene, and they were probably not able to disperse from South-East Asia into South and East Asia. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub: 0171B3BE-02D4-433C-A5CE-4729C537FAF8

Additional materials of Myanmarpithecus yarshensis (Amphipithecidae, Primates) from the middle Eocene Pondaung Formation

Myanmarpithecus yarshensis is an amphipithecid primate from the middle Eocene Pondaung Formation in Myanmar. It was previously known based on maxillary fragments with P4–M3 and mandibular fragments with C–P3 and M2–3. This study reports new materials for the genus, including a humeral head fragment, a lingual fragment of the right M2, a lingual fragment of the right M3, and a left I1. These new materials were collected from approximately the same point, and likely belonged to the same individual. The upper molar morphology and size of the new materials show similarity to those of the type specimen, indicating that the new materials can be assigned to M. yarshensis. The humeral head is the first postcranial element that is associated with dental materials for amphipithecids. The morphological similarity between the previously reported larger humerus and this specimen confirms the assignment of the former specimen to Amphipithecidae and suggests common locomotor adaptations in the family. The upper central incisor is large relative to the molar fragments, but is within the variation among extant platyrrhines. The tooth is spatulate-shaped and high crowned, and lacks the mesial process, indicating similarity to I1 of haplorhines and clear differences from that of adapoids. It has been suggested that amphipithecids, including Myanmarpithecus, have affinities with notharctine adapoids, but the morphology of I1 does not support the notharctine hypothesis of the Amphipithecidae.

Late Pliocene Semnopithecus fossils from central Myanmar: rethinking of the evolutionary history of cercopithecid monkeys in Southeast Asia

We here describe a new fossil species of Asian colobine monkey, Semnopithecus gwebinensissp. nov. from the Late Pliocene Irrawaddy sediments of the Gwebin area in central Myanmar. Extant Semnopithecus (Hanuman langur) is a relatively large, terrestrial colobine monkey known as one of the most adaptable non-human primates. It is widely distributed, mainly in the Indian subcontinent, from Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east. However, in Myanmar Semnopithecus is not distributed but Trachypihtecus is, which is the closest relative to Semnopithecus. It is presumed that extant Trachypithecus pileatus, which is considered to be a hybrid of Semnopithecus and Trachypithecus from molecular biological studies, appeared in the Early Pleistocene as the result of hybridisation between the two genera. On the other hand, no fossil specimens of other cercopithecid monkeys, such as Macaca, Trachypithecus or Rhinopithecus, all of which are commonly discovered from the Pleistocene cave sediments of South China, have been found from the Pliocene sediments in central Myanmar to date. The dissimilarity in the primate fauna between central Myanmar and South China suggests little faunal interchange between the two regions probably because of geographical barriers such as large rivers and high mountain ranges in the area.

First discovery of colobine fossils from the Late Miocene/Early Pliocene in central Myanmar.

Here we report two kinds of colobine fossils discovered from the latest Miocene/Early Pliocene Irrawaddy sediments of the Chaingzauk area, central Myanmar. A left mandibular corpus fragment preserving M1-3 is named as a new genus and species, Myanmarcolobus yawensis. Isolated upper (M(1)?) and lower (M2) molars are tentatively identified as Colobinae gen. et sp. indet. Although both forms are medium-sized colobines, they are quite different from each other in M2 morphology. The isolated teeth of the latter show typical colobine-type features, so it is difficult to identify their taxonomic position, whereas lower molars of Myanmarcolobus have unique features, such as a trapezoid-shaped long median lingual notch, a deeply concave median buccal cleft, a strongly developed mesiobuccal notch, and rather obliquely running transverse lophids. Compared with fossil and living Eurasian colobine genera, Myanmarcolobus is most similar in lower molar morphology to the Pliocene Dolichopithecus of Europe rather than to any Asian forms. In Dolichopithecus, however, the tooth size is much larger and the median lingual notch is mesiodistally much shorter than that of Myanmarcolobus. The discovery of Myanmarcolobus in central Myanmar is the oldest fossil record in Southeast Asia not only of colobine but also of cercopithecid monkeys and raises many questions regarding the evolutionary history of Asian colobine monkeys.