Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen – Reihe A – Dr. Friedrich Pfeil Publishing

The Snout and Anterior Dentition of Early Miocene Anthracotheres (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Europe: Implications for Taxonomy, Systematics and Phylogeny

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:55:47 +0000

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Revision of Large Anthracotheres from the Early Miocene of Moghara, Egypt

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:49:11 +0000

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A Descriptive Catalogue of Fossils from Wadi Natrun

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 07:22:50 +0000

Fossil vertebrates collected from Wadi Natrun, northeastern Egypt, at various times during the past 120 years are curated at the Cairo Geological Museum and in several museums in Europe, but much of the material in Cairo has never been described. In order to make the latter collection more accessible to colleagues, we present a descriptive catalogue of the fossils, with images, measurements, descriptions and discussions.

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A new look at Eurasian Neogene Pliohyracidae

Markus Pfeil — Wed, 19 May 2021 13:31:41 +0000

The Pliohyracidae is a family of Hyracoidea that dispersed throughout Africa and much of low-latitude Eurasia during the middle Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene, having been recorded from Namibia, East Africa, Tunisia and Morocco, and from Spain in the west to China in the east, via France, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Russia, but curiously never from the Indian Subcontinent or southeast Asia. Fossils of this family were frequently confused with chalicotheres, but the discovery of more complete specimens gradually led to elucidation of their hyracoid affinities. On occasion fossils of other taxa were included in the family, notable some suids and chalicotheres which complicated their interpretation. The aim of this paper is to describe some unpublished fossils from Turkey, and to re-interpret some specimens from Turkey and France that have proven to be of enigmatic systematic and phylogenetic affinities.

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Revision of the smaller-bodied anthropoids from Napak, early Miocene, Uganda

Markus Pfeil — Wed, 19 May 2021 13:29:30 +0000

Since the publication on the small-bodied catarrhines of Napak, Uganda, by Pickford et al. (2010) 173 additional teeth have been recovered from localities in the Iriri, Napak and Akisim members, some of them in maxillae and mandibles. The diversity of small catarrhines at Napak is high, with at least ten species recognised, one of which is incertae sedis. The new collections fill out the fossil record of several of the inadequately known taxa, and indicate the possibility that there are additional poorly represented lineages present. The expanded dental sample of Micropithecus clarki now available from Napak, reveals that all the fossils from Kenya attributed to this species fall outside the range of metric variation of the Napak sample. A revision of the Kenyan small-bodied “ape” samples is needed to clarify their status, as it is also clear that several of the Kenyan taxa as currently understood, such as Kalepithecus songhorensis, are chimaera, their hypodigms being mixtures of remains from two or three taxa. This situation renders previous cladistic analyses of doubtful value. A partial revision of some of the Kenyan taxa is undertaken herein, but a general revision is beyond the scope of this paper, the aim being to focus on the Napak assemblage in order to make it accessible to colleagues.

Key words. Taxonomy, Systematics, Morphology, Adaptations, Catarrhines, Uganda, Early Miocene, Dentognathic, Maxillary sinus, Incisive foramen, Nasal aperture.

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The Fossil Suidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Ternifine (Tighenif) Algeria

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 08:25:42 +0000

The locality at Tighenif (Ternifine, Palikao) Algeria, rose to prominence in the 1950’s due to the discovery of early hominid remains (Atlanthropus mauritanicus) associated with Acheulean artefacts. There has been debate about the age of the deposits, but recent views are that, on biostratigraphic evidence, they lie somewhere in the interval between 0.8 and 0.7 Ma, an estimate somewhat younger than that envisaged by the excavators of the site during the 1950’s. Some of the mammalian groups from Ternifine have been published in detail, but the Suidae have not, even though they appear to have played a rôle in the initial determination of the age of the deposits. Early identification of the suids from the site classified them in Notochoerus or Afrochoerus, but this was changed to Metridiochoerus compactus during the 1970’s, a listing that has been repeated until recently. This paper describes the suid fossils from Tighenif in detail, based on an extensive and informative collection of fossils housed in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and concludes that all of it belongs to Metridiochoerus andrewsi and that it corresponds best with material from the upper parts of Olduvai Bed II, ca 1.4±0.3 Ma. It’s feeding ecology is investigated.

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Land Snails from the Early Miocene Legetet Formation,  Koru, Kenya

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 16:17:55 +0000

Fossil terrestrial gastropods have proven to be reliable indicators of palaeoenvironments. Fossil assemblages from the Early Miocene of East Africa have similar compositions to extant snails assemblages from the same region, although there are some notable absences in the fossil record. The fossil gastropods from the Legetet Formation, near Koru, Western Kenya, comprises ca. 50000 specimens belonging to at least 48 taxa. Such a rich assemblage rivals the diversity in optimal extant snail territories, such as tropical forest. The present note describes and interprets the Early Miocene Legetet Gastropoda. They reveal that the region was covered in perennially humid forest at the time of deposition, and that it was an upland more than 1200 metres above sea-level. Snails were evidently breeding at the site, as shown by the abundance and variety of snail eggs found in the deposits.

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Revision of African Kubanochoerinae (Suidae: Mammalia) with descriptions of new fossils from the Middle Miocene Aka Aiteputh Formation, Nachola, Kenya

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:33:17 +0000

A comprehensive sample of Kubanochoerinae collected from Middle Miocene Aka Aiteputh Formation in the Nachola area, northern Kenya, not only permits a revision of the suids from the deposits, but also prompts a new look at the phylogeny, biostratigraphy and palaeobiogeography of this subfamily of Suidae. There are three suid species at Nachola, all of them kubanochoeres (Kenyasus namaquensis, Libycochoerus jeanneli, Kubwachoerus (gen. nov.) marymuunguae) and, in addition, among the Suiformes there are abundant Sanitheriidae and a few anthracotheres. The associated fauna indicates correlation to Faunal Set PIIIb (Middle Miocene) and radio-isotopic dates on subjacent lavas (ca. 16 Ma) accord with such a correlation. The augmented sample of Kenyasus namaquensis removes doubts expressed in the literature about its affinities to kubanochoeres. A new genus and two new species are described, one a small species of Palaeochoerus from Namibia that is the likely ancestor of the Kubanochoerinae and the Namachoerinae, the other being a huge species of a new genus of kubanochoere from Kenya.

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Orycteropodidae (Tubulidentata, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Napak, Uganda

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 04 Aug 2019 13:29:17 +0000

During the July-August, 2018, field survey of the Uganda Palaeontology Expedition, parts of an orycteropodid skull and post-cranial skeleton were found in Early Miocene (ca. 20-18.5 a) volcaniclastic deposits at Napak XIII. Search in the previous collections from the site yielded additional isolated elements of the skeleton including ribs, vertebrae and part of the pelvis. The fossil is extremely interesting in the context of Orycteropodidae evolution, because it is not only the oldest known associated (partial) skeleton of an African “antbear”, but is also the most peculiar in a number of cranial and post-cranial features.

Despite well over two hundred years of scientific research on aardvarks, their higher order systematic and phylogenetic positions remain enigmatic. A description and interpretation of the Napak fossil is provided so that scholars can access evidence that may be of value for phylogenetic, systematic and taxonomic investigations.

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Revision of “peccary-like” Suoidea (Artiodactyla: Mammalia) from the Neogene of the Old World

Markus Pfeil — Mon, 22 May 2017 10:39:51 +0000

This paper focusses on the Neogene fossil record of what used to be called “Old World Tayassuidae” or “peccary-like suoids” (in recent literature – Palaeochoeridae). New fossil discoveries in the German Bohnerz deposits provide the basis for a revision of the European Neogene Suoidea, revealing that the traditional bipartite subdivision of the Eurasian members of the superfamily into two families, Suidae (true pigs), and peccary-like mammals (Palaeochoeridae or false pigs) is no longer tenable because the latter family groups together a heterogeneous suite of suoids that are only united by the fact that they are not suids.

The bipartite subdivision represents an old approach to suoid systematics reflecting a deep-seated lumping approach to suiform studies on the part of most researchers, which has only recently become articulated as problematic. The new suoid fossils from the Bohnerz and other European Oligo-Miocene deposits indicate that, at the family level, the taxonomic diversity of Suoidea is greater than was previously suspected, comprising at least six families – ) Doliochoeridae (Doliochoerus, Lorancahyus, Propalaeochoerus, Bransatochoerus and probably Dubiotherium), ) Schizoporcidae (Schizoporcus), ) Sanitheriidae (Diamantohyus, Sanitherium), ) Siderochoeridae (nov.) comprising two subfamilies – Choeromorinae (Choeromorus, Pecarichoerus and Yunnanochoerus) and Siderochoerinae (Siderochoerus), ) Hippopotamidae nd 6) Suidae (the two latter groups are not discussed in detail in this paper) nor are the New World Tayassuidae. One new genus and three new species of Siderochoeridae are described. This paper complements a recent revision of the Suidae from Europe.

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