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Abstract New ruminant material recovered at the Dhok Bin Mir Khatoon site is described and compared. The specimens are attributed to cf. Eotragus, Eotragus sp. (large size) and cf. Palaeohypsodontus zinensis. Palaeohypsodontus zinensis was originally known from Oligocene deposits of Pakistan, China and Mongolia but the new material extends its presence to the early Miocene/earliest middle Miocene of Asia. The results allow preliminary discussion on the biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the site and the diversity of early Asian artiodactyls.
Key words: Eotragus, Palaeohypsodontus, Early Miocene, Pakistan.
INTRODUCTION In 1967 and 1969, two specimens of small ruminants were collected from Dhok Bin Mir Khatoon, Chakwal District, Pakistan and shelved unidentified in the Laboratory of Palaeontology, Department of Zoology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. The senior author visited the area in May 2008 and recovered several mammalian remains. The small bovid specimens collected from the locality are considered in this paper.
The fossil site (72° 55' 45.4 E, 32° 47' 26.4 N) is located in Dhok Bin Mir Khatoon village, 23 km West of Chakwal District, Punjab, Pakistan (Fig. 1). The fossiliferous deposits consist of shales, siltstones and sand stones. The locality represents lateral facies associations and pedogenesis within the fine grained fossil-bearing floodplain deposits that are characteristic of fluvial depositional environment (Behrensmeyer, 1987, 1988, 1995; Willis, 1993; Barry et al., 2002).
The material provides additional evidence for the early Miocene/earliest middle Miocene small ruminant fauna of Pakistan. The basic aim of the paper is to describe poorly documented early ruminants.
The morphological and metrical characters of the specimens are described and their systematic determination is discussed. Measurements are given in millimeters (mm). Uppercase letters stand for upper teeth and lowercase letters for lower teeth. The catalogue number of the specimens consists of series i.e., yearly catalogued number and serial catalogued number, so figures of the specimen represent the collection year (numerator) and serial number (denominator) of that year (e.g. 08/01).
Abbreviations PC-GCUF, Paleontological Collection of Government College University Faisalabad; PUPC, Punjab University Paleontological Collection; Ma, million years; d, deciduous; m, molar; l, largest length; w, width; w(tr), width of trigonid; w(ta), width of talonid; h, height.
SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY Order Artiodactyla Owen, 1848 Suborder Ruminantia Scopoli, 1777 Family Bovidae Gray, 1821 Subfamily Bovinae Gray, 1821 Tribe Boselaphini Knottnerus-Meyer,...