Here we describe the first record of a chalicothere from the Miocene of Myanmar. The chalicothere, documented by a par− tial mandible, was unearthed from the lower portion of the Irrawaddy Formation in the region of Magway, Central Myanmar. The Burmese material belongs to an early late Miocene fauna which recently yielded hominoid remains attrib− uted to Khoratpithecus. The specimen, which is a...

A new species of the bovid Shaanxispira, from the upper Miocene deposits of the Linxia Basin, Gansu Province, China, is described here. Shaanxispira is endemic to Northern China and was previously known only from the Lantian area, Shaanxi Province, by two species, S. chowi and S. baheensis. The new species, S. linxiaensis nov. sp., is of early Bahean in age, slightly older than the species from...

The Late Miocene-Early Pliocene Hyargas-Nuur formation in Western Mongolia yielded a rich fauna of birds which contributes significantly to our knowledge of the Neogene avian diversity in Asia. A study of new fossil remains, collected during the last 20 years, and a revision of several previously described taxa are presented in this paper. Cygnus pristinus is shown to be clearly separable from ...

We present a kinematic model for the Himalayan thrust belt that satisfies structural and metamorphic data and explains recently reported late Miocene–Pliocene geochronologic and thermochronologic ages from rocks in the Main Central thrust zone in central Nepal. At its current exposure level, the Main Central thrust juxtaposes a hanging-wall flat in Greater Himalayan rocks with a footwall flat i...

Background: We developed a method to estimate precipitation using mammalian ecomorphology, specifically the relative height of the molars of herbivores (see companion paper, this issue). Question: If we apply the new method to paleoenvironments, do the results agree with previous results from fossil mammals and paleobotanical proxies? Data: Large herbivorous fossil mammals of Eurasia. Data from...

Integrated pseudosection modeling and monazite petrochronology of paragneiss from the Kanchenjunga region of northeastern Nepal reveal the presence of cryptic tectonometamorphic discontinuities within the Himalayan metamorphic core. These new data outline a series of thrust-sense structures that juxtapose rocks that generally record a protracted history of early Eocene to latest Oligocene–early...

A large number of terrestrial mammalian fossils were reported in the well-exposed Paleogene and Neogene fluvio-lacustrine strata in Western China. Their accurate ages are crucial to understand the mammalian and environmental evolution associated with the step-wise uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. At present their ages are surprisingly poorly constrained. Here, we present a high-resolution magneto...

Ardipithecus fossils found in late Miocene and early Pliocene deposits in the Afar region of Ethiopia, along with Sahelanthropus tchadensis from Chad and Orrorin tugenensis from Kenya, are among the earliest known human ancestors and are considered to be the predecessors to the subsequent australopithecines (Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis). Current paleoenvironmental ...

The early Miocene is one of the least understood intervals in cetacean evolution. A new early Miocene dolphin described here, Papahu taitapu, gen. et sp. nov. (family incertae sedis, Cetacea, Odontoceti), is from the Kaipuke Formation (21.7–18.7 Ma) of North West Nelson, New Zealand. The holotype of Papahu taitapu includes a skull with an open mesorostral canal, a broad-based rostrum (broken an...

in the centeral iranian volcanic belt (civb), north-west of shahre-babak, in area of javazm, dehaj and khabr, about 20 plutonic porphyritic tonalitic to granodioritic masses (1-50 km2) are intruded into a varity of rock sequences from eocene to early miocene in age. tonalitic and granodioritic rocks are some part of dehaj-sardoieh belt and having early miocene age. the civb contains intrusive a...