Paleocene Hapalodectes (Mammalia: Mesonychia) from Subeng, Inner Mongol: Further Evidence of “East of Eden
详细信息
- 责任者：Beard ; K.C. (Section of Vertebrate Paleontology ; Carnegie Museum of Natural History ; Pittsburgh ; PA 15213 USA) ; Wang Yuanqing
- 刊名：Vertebrata Palasiatica
- 出版年：2010
- 卷期：48(4)
- 关键词：中兽科 ; Mesonychidae ; 内蒙古 ; Inner Mongolia
- 页码：p.375-389
- 图表：6 illus., 47 refs.
- 分类号：1103
- issnNo：ISSN1000-3118
- isbnNo：CN11-1905/Q
摘要
A new species of the mesonychian mammal genus Hapalodectes is described from the Gashatan (Late Paleocene) site of Subeng in Inner Mongolia. This is the first Paleocene record of Hapalodectes from China, and the second Gashatan species of Hapalodectes to be recorded from Asia. Available phylogenetic and biostratigraphic evidence supports an Asian origin for Hapalodectes (and Hapalodectidae). Hapalodectes apparently dispersed across Beringia coincident with PETM warming to colonize North America, thereby conforming to the "East of Eden" biogeographic pattern. Purported examples of intercontinental mammalian dispersal at or near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary that conflict with the "East of Eden" pattern are critically examined and found to be wanting. The "East of Eden" biogeographic pattern adequately explains mammalian faunal turnover and Laurasian mammalian biogeography during the PETM.