The Genus Interogale was originally assigned to the order Anagalida.The genotype,I.datangensis Huang et Zheng,1983,was erected based on a well-preserved mandible（V6861）from the late Paleocene,Nanxiong,Guangdong.After the original description we reprepared the snout of the specimen and found that thesnout of I.datangensis,especially,I2 is specialized in a very different way from that of anyknown anagalids.It represents a late Paleocene tillodont with a distinct derived feature.Ano-ther genus assigned to the Order Anagalida,Anchilestes Chiu et Li,1977 from early-middlePaleocene,Qian-shan,Anhui,is very close to Interogale and Meiostylodon in morphology.It represents the oldest tillodont known from China.This paper will focus mainly on the revision of the systematics of the two genera,givingmore details on the morphology.It is hoped that the revision will be a significant addition tothe knowledge of the early radiation of the tillodonts and throw new light on the understand-ing of the origin of the Order Tillodontia.We thank Prof.Chow Minzhen for his support and encouragement in the study,Profs.Zhai Renjie,Li Chuankuei,Qiu Zhanxiang,and Huang Xueshi for their valuable discussion onthe systematics and critical reading of the manuscript,and Profs.Tong Yongsheng,WangBanyue,Qi Tao,and Wan Jingwen for their suggestions for the improvement of the paper.Weare grateful to Dr.M.C.McKenna of the American Museum of Natural History for his va-luable comments and for correcting the English summary.We thank Drs.W.A.Clemens,D.E.Savage,and G.Shkurkin of the University of California at Berkeley,and Dr.J.A.Schie-bout of Louisiana State University for their discussion of the systematics and critcal reading ofthe manuscript.The photographs were taken by Mr.Du Zhi.We thank him.
展开▼
