A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF HYAENODONTID CREODONT FROM THE PONDAUNG FORMATION (EOCENE, MYANMAR)

摘要

The Pondaung Formation in central Myanmar (Fig. 1) produces one of the richest Paleogene mammalian faunas in Southeast Asia. Research on the fauna, known for its diverse primates and ungulates, began in the early part of the twentieth century (e.g., Pilgrim and Cotter, 1916; Pilgrim, 1925, 1927, 1928; Colbert, 1937, 1938; Ba Maw et al., 1979; Ciochon et al., 1985; Holroyd and Ciochon, 1995, 2000; Jaeger et al., 1999; Chaimanee et al., 2000; Ducrocq et al., 2000; Tsubaraoto et al., 2000, 2002a, 2003; Takai et al., 2001; Tsubamoto, 2001; Shigehara et al., 2002). However, the presence of mammalian predators was unknown in the fauna until 1997 when creodonts were discovered. Since 1997, the Pondaung mammalian fauna has been studied collaboratively by researchers from Myanmar, France, Japan, Thailand, and the United States. In subsequent field seasons, many taxa have been added to the fauna (Tsubamoto, 2001). In addition, geological study on the Pondaung Formation provided a radiometric age of 37.2 Ma at one of the fossil localities (Tsubamoto et al., 2002b), the first numerical date for the fauna.