Abstract
Mimotonids share their closest affinity with lagomorphs and were a rare and endemic faunal element of Paleogene mammal assemblages of central Asia. Here we describe a new species, Mimolagus aurorae from the Middle Eocene of Nei Mongol (China). This species belongs to one of the most enigmatic genera of fossil Glires, previously known only from the type and only specimen from the early Oligocene of Gansu (China). Our finding extends the earliest occurrence of the genus by at least 10 million years in the Paleogene of Asia, which closes the gap between Mimolagus and other mimotonids that are known thus far from middle Eocene or older deposits. The new species is one of the largest known pre-Oligocene Glires. As regards duplicidentates, Mimolagus is comparable with the largest Neogene continental leporids, namely hares of the genus Lepus. Our results suggest that ecomorphology of this species was convergent on that of small perissodactyls that dominated faunas of the Mongolian Plateau in the Eocene, and probably a result of competitive pressure from other Glires, including a co-occurring mimotonid, Gomphos.
Highlights
Eocene of China sheds light on the evolution of lagomorphs and their kin Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik1*, Chuankui Li1, Fangyuan Mao[1], Jin Meng2 & Yuanqing Wang[1]
We describe a new mimotonid from the Middle Eocene of the Erlian Basin, Nei Mongol, China (Fig. 1) and assign these remains to a new species of Mimolagus
Faunas of the Mongolian Plateau of China and Mongolia were dominated in the middle Eocene by perissodactyls that inhabited densely forested landscape[20]
Summary
Eocene of China sheds light on the evolution of lagomorphs and their kin Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik1*, Chuankui Li1, Fangyuan Mao[1], Jin Meng2 & Yuanqing Wang[1]. Anatolimys rozhdestvenskii and Mimolagus rodens are restricted to their type localities: Andarak 2 in the Southern Ferghana Valley, Kyrgyzstan[9] and Shanmacheng[13] (5Shih-ehr-ma-ch’eng of Bohlin11), western Gansu, China, respectively The latter species is arguably one of the most enigmatic Glires, known only from the type specimen represented by the upper part of the skull and associated postcranial remains[11,12]. We describe a new mimotonid from the Middle Eocene of the Erlian Basin, Nei Mongol, China (Fig. 1) and assign these remains to a new species of Mimolagus This new finding bridges a considerable temporal gap (at least 10 Myr) between the early Oligocene Mimolagus rodens, which is the youngest known mimotonid, and other Mimotonidae, all known no later than Middle Eocene; it suggests Nei Mongol as the probable region of origin of the genus. It is of considerable interest from the perspective of body size evolution in Glires
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