TY - JOUR
T1 - A new genus of treeshrew and other micromammals from the middle Miocene hominoid locality of Ramnagar, Udhampur District, Jammu and Kashmir, India
AU - Sehgal, Ramesh Kumar
AU - Singh, Abhishek Pratap
AU - Gilbert, Christopher C.
AU - Patel, Biren A.
AU - Campisano, Christopher J.
AU - Selig, Keegan R.
AU - Patnaik, Rajeev
AU - Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit
N1 - Funding Information:
RKS, NPS, and APS thank the Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun for the research facilities (contribution no. WIHG/201). This research was supported by the Leakey Foundation, the PSC-CUNY faculty award program, Hunter College, and the U.S. National Science Foundation (BCS Award nos. 1945736, 1945743, 1945618). We thank T. Skorka at the University of Southern California's Molecular Imaging Center (MIC) for assisting with μCT scanning; the MIC receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH S10 RR027665 01). KRS is supported by the Kalbfleisch Fellowship, Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH. We thank E. Sargis, E. Seiffert, L. Flynn, and L. Jacobs for helpful advice, directions to important papers, and assistance with specimen identification. L. Flynn and L. Jacobs also provided valuable and constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. V. Parmar kindly provided information on the geographic location of previously worked Dehari sites.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Paleontological Society.
PY - 2022/11/28
Y1 - 2022/11/28
N2 - The fossil record of treeshrews, hedgehogs, and other micromammals from the Lower Siwaliks of India is sparse. Here, we report on a new genus and species of fossil treeshrew, specimens of the hedgehog Galerix, and other micromammals from the middle Miocene (Lower Siwalik) deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Udhampur District, Jammu and Kashmir), at a fossil locality known as Dehari. The treeshrew from Dehari (Sivatupaia ramnagarensis n. gen. n. sp.) currently represents the oldest record of fossil tupaiids in the Siwaliks, extending their time range by ca. 2.5-4.0 Myr in the region. Dietary analyses suggest that the new tupaiid was likely adapted for a less mechanically challenging or more frugivorous diet compared to other extant and fossil tupaiids. The occurrence of Galerix has only been recently documented from the Indian Siwaliks and the Dehari specimens help establish the likely presence of a relatively large Siwalik Galerix species in the Ramnagar region. In addition to the new treeshrew and hedgehogs, new specimens of the rodents Kanisamys indicus, Sayimys sivalensis, and Murinae indet. from Dehari help confirm that age estimates for the Ramnagar region are equivalent to the Chinji Formation in Pakistan, most likely corresponding to the middle to upper part of the Chinji Formation.
AB - The fossil record of treeshrews, hedgehogs, and other micromammals from the Lower Siwaliks of India is sparse. Here, we report on a new genus and species of fossil treeshrew, specimens of the hedgehog Galerix, and other micromammals from the middle Miocene (Lower Siwalik) deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Udhampur District, Jammu and Kashmir), at a fossil locality known as Dehari. The treeshrew from Dehari (Sivatupaia ramnagarensis n. gen. n. sp.) currently represents the oldest record of fossil tupaiids in the Siwaliks, extending their time range by ca. 2.5-4.0 Myr in the region. Dietary analyses suggest that the new tupaiid was likely adapted for a less mechanically challenging or more frugivorous diet compared to other extant and fossil tupaiids. The occurrence of Galerix has only been recently documented from the Indian Siwaliks and the Dehari specimens help establish the likely presence of a relatively large Siwalik Galerix species in the Ramnagar region. In addition to the new treeshrew and hedgehogs, new specimens of the rodents Kanisamys indicus, Sayimys sivalensis, and Murinae indet. from Dehari help confirm that age estimates for the Ramnagar region are equivalent to the Chinji Formation in Pakistan, most likely corresponding to the middle to upper part of the Chinji Formation.
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U2 - 10.1017/jpa.2022.41
DO - 10.1017/jpa.2022.41
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143890955
SN - 0022-3360
VL - 96
SP - 1318
EP - 1335
JO - Journal of Paleontology
JF - Journal of Paleontology
IS - 6
ER -