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A springhare from the Late Miocene Yuanmou Lufengpithecus site in Yunnan Province, China

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  • (1 Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese
     Academy of Sciences  Beijing 100044, China)
    (2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049, China   *Corresponding author: nixijun@ivpp.ac.cn)
    (3 Department of Zoology, Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan 03221, Punjab, Pakistan)
    (4 School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University Shanghai 200062, China)

Online published: 2025-07-02

Abstract

While scarce outside of Africa, fossils of springhares (Pedetidae) are common in the Miocene of the continent. We report on the first fossil record of springhare in East Asia. The new springhare fossil is from the Late Miocene Yuanmou Lufengpithecus site in Yunnan Province of China, the paleoenvironment of which is considered to be a subtropical forest biome. Although represented only by a single lower left premolar, the specimen exhibits a set of synapomorphies of pedetids, including a column-like high tooth crown, two lophids, and a relatively flat occlusal surface. The new springhare from the Late Miocene of Yunnan has a short mesostriid and long hypostriid in the lower cheek tooth, differing from all other pedetids with the exception of the Early Miocene Parapedetes from Africa. The Yuanmou springhare has been classified as Storchipedetes afroasiaticus gen. et sp. nov. It is likely that the Yunnan springhare represents an early divergent lineage of the Pedetidae that was adapted to a more closed environment than its African relatives. This extinct lineage probably dispersed to Asia as part of the first wave of the “out of Africa” Neogene mammals in the Early Miocene. 

Cite this article

Rana Mehroz FAZAL, NI Xi-Jun, LI Qiang, QIU Zhu-Ding, YANG Yang-Heshan . A springhare from the Late Miocene Yuanmou Lufengpithecus site in Yunnan Province, China[J]. Vertebrata Palasiatica, 0 : 1 . DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250702

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