Oldest South Asian tapiromorph (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the Cambay Shale Formation, western India, with comments on its phylogenetic position and biogeographic implications

Vivesh V. Kapur; Sunil Bajpai

doi:10.54991/jop.2015.104

Authors

Vivesh V. Kapur Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India
Sunil Bajpai Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54991/jop.2015.104

Keywords:

Perissodactyla, Tapiromorpha, Eocene, Vastan Lignite Mine, India

Abstract

A new tapiromorph perissodactyl (Cambaylophus vastanensis gen. et sp. nov.) from the basal Eocene (~54–55 Ma) Cambay Shale Formation, Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, western India, is described for the first time. The new taxon, which represents the earliest known tapiromorph from South Asia and the second perissodactyl group in the Vastan mammal fauna after cambaytheres, is based on a partial maxilla with molars and deciduous premolars. Cambaylophus differs from Eocene tapiromorphs from the Indian Subcontinent mainly in having relatively narrow and less lophodont upper molars with a small, low and lingually shifted parastyle. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Cambaylophus forms a clade with the early Eocene tapiromorph Gandheralophus from Pakistan, and that it is closely nested with the early Eocene (Bumbanian) tapiromorph Orientolophus from China. The study points out the importance of Cambaylophus in evaluating the evolutionary relationships of early radiation of tapiromorphs and ascertaining the degree of connectivity/isolation of the Indian Subcontinent around the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary, especially in the context of India–Asia collision.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Bai B, Wang Y, Meng J, Li Q & Jin X 2014. New Early Eocene Basal tapiromorph from southern China and its phylogenetic implications. PLoS ONE. 9(10): e110806. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110806.

Bajpai S 2009. Biotic perspective of the Deccan volcanism and India–Asia collision: Recent advances. In: Current trends in Science, Platinum Jubilee Special Publication, Indian Academy of Sciences: 505–516.

Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Das DP, Tiwari BN, Saravanan N & Sharma R 2005a. Early Eocene land mammals from Vastan lignite mine, District Surat (Gujarat), western India. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 50: 101–113.

Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Thewissen JGM, Tiwari BN, Das DP, Sharma R & Saravanan N 2005b. Early Eocene primates from Vastan lignite mine, Gujarat, western India. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 50: 43–54.

Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Thewissen JGM, Das DP & Tiwari BN 2006. New Early Eocene cambaythere (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the Vastan lignite mine (Gujarat, India) and an evaluation of cambaythere relationships. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 51: 101–110.

Bajpai S, Kay RF, Williams BA, Das DP, Kapur VV & Tiwari BN 2008. The oldest Asian record of Anthropoidea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105: 11093–11098.

Bajpai S, Kapur VV & Thewissen JGM 2009. Creodont and condylarth from Cambay Shale (early Eocene, ~55–54 Ma), Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, western India. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 54: 103–109.

Bowen GJ, Clyde WC, Koch PL, Ting S, Alroy J, Tsubamoto T, Wang Y & Wang Y 2002. Mammalian dispersal at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. Science 295: 2062–2065.

Clementz M, Bajpai S, Ravikant V, Thewissen JGM, Singh IB & Prasad V 2011. Early Eocene warming events and the timing of terrestrial faunal exchange between India and Asia. Geology 39: 15–18.

Cooper LN, Seiffert ER, Clementz M, Madar SI, Bajpai S, Hussain ST & Thewissen JGM 2014. Anthracobunids from the Middle Eocene of India and Pakistan are Stem Perissodactyls. PLoS ONE. 9(10): e109232. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109232.

DeCelles PG, Kapp P, Gehrels GE & Ding L 2014. Paleocene–Eocene foreland basin evolution in the Himalaya of southern Tibet and Nepal: Implications for the age of initial India–Asia collision. Tectonics 33: 824–849.

Froehlich DJ 1999. Phylogenetic systematics of basal perissodactyls. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19: 140–159.

Froehlich DJ 2002. Quo vadis Eohippus? The systematics and taxonomy of the early Eocene equids (Perissodactyla). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 134: 141–256.

Garg R, Ateequzzaman K, Prasad V, Tripathi SKM, Singh IB, Jauhri AK & Bajpai S 2008. Age–diagnostic dinoflagellate cysts from the lignite–bearing sediments of the Vastan lignite mine, Surat District, Gujarat, western India. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 53: 99–105.

Gill T 1872. Arrangement of the families of mammals with analytical tables. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 11: 1–98.

Gingerich PD 1991. Systematics and evolution of early Eocene Perissodactyla (Mammalia) in the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 28: 181–213.

Gingerich PD 2006. Environment and evolution through the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21: 246–253.

Goloboff PA, Farris JS & Nixon KC 2008. TNT, a free program for phylogenetic analysis. Cladistics 24: 774–786.

Haeckel E 1866. Allgemeine Anotomie der Organismen: Generalle Morphologie der Organismen. Verlag von Georg Reimer, Berlin.

Holbrook LT 1999. The phylogeny and classification of tapiromorph perissodactyls (Mammalia). Cladistics 15: 331–350.

Holbrook LT & Lapergola J 2011. A new genus of perissodactyl (Mammalia) from the Bridgerian of Wyoming, with comments on basal perissodactyl phylogeny. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31: 895–901.

Hooker JJ & Dashzeveg D 2004. The origin of chalicotheres (Perissodactyla, Mammalia). Palaeontology 47: 1363–1386.

Krause DW & Maas MC 1990. The biogeographic origins of late Paleocene–early Eocene mammalian immigrants to the Western Interior of North America. In: Bown TM & Rose KD (Editors)—Dawn of the age of mammals in the northern part of the Rocky Mountain Interior, North America: Boulder, Colorado. Geological Society of America Special Paper 243: 71–105.

Kapur VV & Bajpai S 2015. New data on basal Eocene land mammal fauna from western India: Focus on Perissodactyls. National Conference on “Palaeogene of the Indian Subcontinent”, Lucknow, April 23–24, 2015, Abstract Volume: 55–56.

Kumar K & Sahni A 1985. Eocene mammals from the Upper Subathu Group, Kashmir. Himalaya, India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 5: 153–168.

Linnaeus C 1758. Systema naturae. 10th Edition, L. Salvii, Upsala 1: 1–824.

Lucas SG, Holbrook LT & Emry R 2003. Isectolophus (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Eocene of the Zaysan Basin, Kazakstan and its biochronological significance. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23: 238–243.

Lucas SG & Kondrashov PE 2004. Early Eocene (Bumbanian) Perissodactyls from Mongolia and their biochronological significance. In: Lucas SG, Zeigler KE & Kondrashov PE (Editors)–Paleogene Mammals. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 26: 215–220.

Maas MC, Hussain ST, Leinders JJM & Thewissen JGM 2001. A new isectolophid tapiromorph (Perissodactyla, Mammalia) from the Early Eocene of Pakistan. Journal of Paleontology 75: 407–417.

Missiaen P & Gingerich PD 2012. New early Eocene tapiromorph perissodactyls from the Ghazij Formation of Pakistan, with implications for mammalian biochronology in Asia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57: 21–34.

Owen R 1848. Description of the teeth and portions of jaws of two extinct anthracotheroid quadrupeds (Hyopotamus vectianus and Hyopotamus bovinus) discovered by the Marchioness of Hastings in the Eocene deposits of the N.W. Coast of the Isle of Wight: with an attempt to develop Cuvier’s idea of the classification of Pachyderms by the number of their toes. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 4: 103–141.

Prasad V, Singh IB, Bajpai S, Garg R, Thakur B, Singh A, Saravanan N & Kapur VV 2013. Palynofacies and sedimentology–based high–resolution sequence stratigraphy of the lignite–bearing muddy coastal deposits (early Eocene) in the Vastan Lignite Mine, Gulf of Cambay, India. Facies 59: 737–761.

Rana RS, Kumar K, Escarguel G, Sahni A, Rose KD, Smith T, Singh H & Singh L 2008. An ailuravine rodent from the lower Eocene Cambay Formation at Vastan, western India, and its palaeobiogeographic implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53: 1–14.

Rose KD, Kumar K, Rana RS, Sahni A & Smith T 2013. New Hypsodont Tillodont (Mammalia, Tillodontia) from the Early Eocene of India. Journal of Palaeontology 87: 842–853.

Rose KD, Holbrook LT, Rana RS, Kumar K, Katrina EJ, Heather ES, Missiaen P, Sahni A & Smith T 2014. Early Eocene fossils suggest that the mammalian order Perissodactyla originated in India. Nature communications 5(5570): 1–9.

Sahni A & Jolly A 1993. Eocene mammals from Kalakot, Kashmir Himalaya: community structure, taphonomy and palaeobiogeographical implications. Kaupia, Darmstädter Beiträgezur Naturgeschichte, Darmstadt 3: 209–222.

Sahni A, Saraswati PK, Rana RS, Kumar K, Singh H, Alimohammadian H, Sahni N, Rose KD, Singh L & Smith T 2006. Temporal constraints and depositional palaeoenvironments of the Vastan Lignite Sequence, Gujarat: analogy for the Cambay Shale hydrocarbon source rock. Indian Journal of Petroleum Geology 15: 1–20.

Scotese CR 2013. PALEOMAP Paleo Atlas for ArcGIS, Volume 1, Cenozoic (PALEOMAP Project, 2013).

Thewissen JGM, Williams EM & Hussain ST 2001. Eocene mammal faunas from northern Indo–Pakistan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21: 347–366.

Ting S 1993. A preliminary report on an early Eocene mammalian fauna from Hengdong, Hunan Province, China. Kaupia 3: 201–207.

Ting S 1998. Paleocene and early Eocene land mammal ages of Asia. Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History 34: 124–147.

Ting S, Tong Y, Clyde WC, Koch PL, Meng J, Wang Y, Bowen GJ, Qian L & Snell KE 2011. Asian early Paleogene chronology and mammalian faunal turnover events. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 49: 1–28.

Van Hinsbergen DJJ, Lippert PC, Dupont–Nivet G, McQuarrie N, Doubrovine PV, Spakman W & Torsvik TH 2012. Greater Indian Basin hypothesis and a two–stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 109: 7659–7664.