Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:39:12.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Earliest Eocene Miacidae (Mammalia: Carnivora) from northwestern Wyoming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Ronald E. Heinrich ,
Suzanne G. Strait  and
Peter Houde
Ronald E. Heinrich
Affiliation:
1reheinrich@gmail.com
Suzanne G. Strait
Affiliation:
2Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 25755
Peter Houde
Affiliation:
3Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fossil carnivorans are described from earliest Eocene localities in the Clarks Fork and southern Bighorn basins of Wyoming. Three new species, Miacis rosei, Uintacyon gingerichi, and Vassacyon bowni, collected from the base of the Wasatchian North American Land Mammal Age (Wa-0), are the smallest and possibly most basal members of their respective genera, and increase from one to four the number of miacids known from this faunal zone. An upper dentition of Miacis deutschi from slightly younger (Wa-2) deposits is also described. Previously known only from lower teeth and a single M1, the specimen of M. deutschi includes the left P3-M2, alveoli for the canine, first two premolars and the last molar, as well as most of the maxilla. the new material helps fill gaps in our knowledge of the dental morphology of basal Miacidae and provides insight into the functional differences of the carnassial teeth in the diverging Uintacyon and Miacis lineages. It also provides an opportunity to further assess the hypothesis that climactic warming in the earliest Eocene resulted in evolutionary dwarfing of mammalian species; based on three criteria for identifying dwarfed species at least one of the new taxa, U. gingerichi, is consistent with this hypothesis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 154 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bloch, J. I. and Bowen, G. J. 2001. Paleocene-Eocene microvertebrates in freshwater limestones of the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming, p. 94–129. In Gunnell, G. F. (ed.), Eocene Biodiversity: Unusual Occurrences and Rarely Sampled Habitats. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bloch, J. I. and Boyer, D. M. 2001. Taphonomy of small mammals in freshwater limestones from the Paleocene of the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming, p. 186–198. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Bowdich, T. E. 1821. An Analysis of the Natural Classifications of Mammalia for the Use of Students and Travellers. J. Smith, Paris115 p.Google Scholar
Bowen, G. J., Koch, P. L., Gingerich, P. D., Norris, R. D., Bains, S., and Corfield, R. M. 2001. Refined stratigraphy across the continental Paleocene-Eocene boundary on Polecat Bench in the northern Bighorn Basin, p. 73–88. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Bown, T. M., Rose, K. D., Simons, E. L. and Wing, S. L. 1994. Distribution and stratigraphic correlation of Upper Paleocene and Lower Eocene fossil mammal and plant localities of the Fort Union, Willwood, and Tatman formations, southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1540:103 p.Google Scholar
Chow, M.-C. 1975. Some carnivores from the Eocene of China. Vertebrata PaleoAsiatica, 13(3): 165–168.Google Scholar
Clark, J. 1939. Miacis gracilis, a new carnivore from the Uinta Eocene. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 27:349–370.Google Scholar
Clyde, W. C. 2001. Mammalian biostratigraphy of the McCullough Peaks area in the northern Bighorn Basin, p. 109–126. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1872. Third account of new Vertebrata from the Bridger Eocene of Wyoming Territory. Paleontological Bulletin, Philadelphia, 3: 4 p.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1880. On the genera of the Creodonta. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 19:76–82.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1882. On the systematic relations of the Carnivora Fissipedia. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 20:471–475.Google Scholar
Ducrocq, S., Buffetaut, E., Buffetaut-Tong, H., Helmckke-Ingavat, R., Jaeger, J.-J., Jongkanjanasoontorn, Y., and Suteethorn, V. 1992. A lower Tertiary vertebrate fauna from Krabi (South Thailand). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 184(1): 101–122.Google Scholar
Flynn, J. J. 1998. Early Cenozoic Carnivora (“Miacoidea”), p. 110–123. In Janis, C. M., Scott, K. M., and Jacobs, L. L. (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America, Volume 1, Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulate-Like Mammals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Froehlich, D. J. 2002. Quo vadis eohippus? The systematics and taxonomy of the early Eocene equids (Perissodactyla). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 134(2): 141–256.Google Scholar
Gazin, C. L. 1952. The lower Eocene Knight Formation of western Wyoming ands its mammalian faunas. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 117(18): 82 p.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1983. Systematics of early Eocene Miacidae (Mammalia, Carnivora) in the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, 26:197–225.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 1989. New earliest Wasatchian mammalian fauna from the Eocene of northwestern Wyoming: Composition and diversity in a rarely sampled high-floodplain assemblage. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 28:97 p.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 2001. Biostratigraphy of the continental Paleocene-Eocene boundary interval on Polecat Bench in the northern Bighorn Basin, p. 37–72. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. 2003. Mammalian responses to climate change at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: Polecat Bench record in the northern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, p. 463–478. In Wing, S. L., Gingerich, P. D., and Thomas, E. (eds.), Causes and Consequences of Globally Warm Climates in the Early Paleogene. Geological Society of America Special Paper 369.Google Scholar
Gingerich, P. D. and Clyde, W. C. 2001. Overview of mammalian biostratigraphy in the Paleocene-Eocene Fort Union and Willwood formations of the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, p. 1–14. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Granger, W. 1915. A Revision of the lower Eocene Wasatch and Wind River faunas, Pt. III, Order Condylartha. Families Phenacodontidae and Meniscotheriidae. American Museum Of Natural History Bulletin, 34:329–361.Google Scholar
Gustafson, E. P. 1986. Carnivorous mammals of the late Eocene and early Oligocene of Trans-Pecos Texas. Texas Memorial Museum Bulletin, 33: 66 p.Google Scholar
Heinrich, R. E. 1997. Referral of Miacis jepseni to Oödectes Wortman, and an assessment of phylogenetic relationships among early Eocene Miacidae (Mammalia: Carnivora). Journal of Paleontology, 71(6): 1172–1178.Google Scholar
Houde, P. 1988. Paleognathous Birds from the Early Tertiary of the Northern Hemisphere. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 22:1–148.Google Scholar
Houde, P. and Olson, S. L. 1992. A radiation of coly-like birds from the Eocene of North America (Aves: Sandcoleiforms New Order). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series, 36:136–160.Google Scholar
Kitts, D. B. 1956. American Hyracotherium (Perrisodactyla, Equidae). American Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 110:1–60.Google Scholar
Leidy, J. 1872. Remarks on fossils from Wyoming. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1872:277.Google Scholar
Macintyre, G. T. 1966. The Miacidae (Mammalia: Carnivora). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 131:115–210.Google Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1871. Notice of some new fossil mammals and birds from the Tertiary formations of the West. American Journal of Science, 2:120–127.Google Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1872. Preliminary description of new Tertiary mammals. American Journal of Science, 2:202–224.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1909a. Faunal lists of the Tertiary Mammalia of the West. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, 361:91–138.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1909b. The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, middle Eocene. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 9: 289–567.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1915. A revision of the lower Eocene Wasatch and Wind River faunas, Pt. I, Order Carnivora. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 34: 103 p.Google Scholar
Polly, P. D., Wesley-Hunt, G. D., Heinrich, R. E., Davis, G., and Houde, P.In press. Earliest known carnivoran auditory bulla and support for a recent origin of crown-group Carnivora (Eutheria, Mammalia). Palaeontology.Google Scholar
Quinet, G. E. 1968. Les mammifères du Landenien continental Belge. Volume 2. Etude de la morphologie dentaire comparée des “carnivores” de Dormaal. Mémoires de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 158:64 p.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. 1981. The Clarkforkian Land-Mammal Age and mammalian faunal composition across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 26:196 p.Google Scholar
Scott, W. B. 1887. On some new and little known creodonts. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 9:155–185.Google Scholar
Stock, C. 1934. New Creodonta from the Sespe Upper Eocene, California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 20:423–427.Google Scholar
Strait, S. G. 2001. New Wa-0 mammalian fauna from Castle Gardens in the southeastern Bighorn Basin, p. 127–143. In Gingerich, P. D. (ed.), Paleocene-Eocene Stratigraphy and Biotic Change in the Bighorn and Clarks Fork Basins, Wyoming. University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 33.Google Scholar
Strait, S. G. 2004. Small, smaller, smallest: A case for dwarfing in small-bodied Wa-0 mammals. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, (supplement to 3), 24:118A.Google Scholar
Stucky, R. K. 1984. The Wasatchian-Bridgerian Land Mammal Age boundary (early to middle Eocene) in western North America. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 53:231–94.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. 1966. Deltatheridia, a new order of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 132:126 p.Google Scholar
Van Valkenburgh, B. 1990. Skeletal and dental predictors of body mass in carnivores, p. 181–205. In Damuth, J. and MacFadden, B. J. (eds.), Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wesley, G. D. and Flynn, J. J. 2005. Phylogeny of the Carnivora: Basal relationships among the carnivoramorphans, and assessment of the position of “Miacoidea” relative to crown-clade Carnivora. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 3(1): 1–28.Google Scholar
Wortman, J. L. 1901. Studies of Eocene Mammalia in the Marsh Collection, Pt. I, Carnivora. American Journal of Science, 11:437–450.Google Scholar
Wortman, J. L. and Matthew, W. D. 1899. The ancestry of certain members of the Canidae, the Viverridae, and Procyonidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 12:109–138.Google Scholar
Yans, J., Strait, S. G., Smith, T., Dupuis, C., Steurbaut, E., and Gingerich, P. D. 2006. High resolution carbon isotope stratigraphy and mammalian faunal change at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the honeycombs area of the southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. American Journal of Science, 306:712–735.Google Scholar
Zheng, J., Tung, Y., and Qi, H. 1975. Discovery of Miacidae (Carnivora) in Yuanshui Basin, Kiangsi Province. Vertebrata Palasiatica, 13:96–104.Google Scholar