Abstract
Ougandatherium napakense nov. gen. nov. sp., the earliest Rhinocerotidae Iranotheriinae from Africa. The Uganda Palaeontology Expedition discovered an exceptionally rich fossiliferous channel deposit at Napak I, Karamoja, in 1999, which yielded two partial skeletons of a new genus and species of early Miocene Rhinocerotidae, together with various other mammals and gastropods typical of Faunal Set I of East Africa. The age of the deposits on the basis of both faunal correlation (biochronology) and radio-isotopic dating is ca 19–20 Ma. The new genus and species is a hornless rhinoceros about the size of a small horse, with long slender limb bones and metapodials and hypsodont upper cheek teeth whose enamel is undulate, and fossettes cement-filled. Upper premolars possess an inner wall; this is clearly an iranotheriine morphology. As such it is the earliest known African member of this subfamily, close to the oldest member of the subfamily recently discovered at Bugti in Pakistan, a site whose age is about the same.
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