Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen – Reihe A – Pfeil Verlag

Revision of Old World Early and Middle Miocene small Selenodont Anthracotheres (Mammalia, Artiodactyla)

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:01:33 +0000

This monograph presents the first comprehensive revision of the Early Miocene small anthracotheres of Africa and places them within a broader evolutionary and biogeographical framework by integrating evidence from the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Europe. Based on extensive re-examination of historical collections together with newly discovered and previously undescribed fossil material from Moghara (Egypt) and Gebel Zelten (Libya), the study provides a fundamental reassessment of the taxonomy, systematics and diversity of these poorly understood artiodactyls.

For more than a century, many African small anthracothere fossils were referred to a limited number of taxa, particularly Sivameryx moneyi and Sivameryx africanus. Detailed analyses of cranial, mandibular and dental morphology presented in this volume demonstrate that these traditional assignments considerably underestimated the true diversity of the group. Comparative study of material from Africa, Pakistan, India, the Levant and Europe reveals that several previously recognised species represent distinct evolutionary lineages, necessitating extensive taxonomic revision.

The monograph resurrects the genus Merycops as distinct from Sivameryx and establishes the new genera Prolibycosaurus, Maradameryx, Afromerycops and Libycomeryx. It further reassesses the status of Afromeryx, Nacholameryx and other problematic taxa, providing revised diagnoses, systematic relationships and distributional data. The resulting classification recognises a substantially greater diversity of small anthracotheres in the African Neogene than previously appreciated, with at least eleven genera now documented from the Early Miocene of Africa.

Beyond its taxonomic contributions, the study offers important insights into the evolutionary history and palaeobiogeography of anthracotheres. It documents faunal connections between Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and parts of Europe, while highlighting regional diversification and evolutionary innovation within the African record. The revised phylogenetic framework provides a more robust basis for interpreting dispersal patterns, lineage evolution and faunal exchange across the Old World during the Neogene.

Combining detailed systematic descriptions, comprehensive comparative analyses and high-quality illustrations of fossil specimens, this volume represents the most complete treatment of African small anthracotheres published to date. It provides an essential reference for vertebrate palaeontologists, mammalian taxonomists, evolutionary biologists and researchers interested in Neogene mammalian faunas and Old World biogeography.

By providing a revised systematic framework for one of the least understood groups of Old World anthracotheres, this monograph establishes a taxonomic foundation for future studies of Neogene mammalian evolution, palaeoecology and biogeography.

Der Beitrag Revision of Old World Early and Middle Miocene small Selenodont Anthracotheres (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

Descriptive Catalogue of Pliocene cercopithecoid Fossils (Primates, Mammalia) from the Humpata Plateau, Angola

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Wed, 06 May 2026 06:45:50 +0000

Der Beitrag Descriptive Catalogue of Pliocene cercopithecoid Fossils (Primates, Mammalia) from the Humpata Plateau, Angola erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

Revision of small Bunodont Anthracotheres (Artiodactyla, Anthracotheriidae, Microbunodontinae) from Indo-Pakistan, and Reassessment of the Age of the Caribari Deposits, Garo Hills, Bengal

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:12:18 +0000

Der Beitrag Revision of small Bunodont Anthracotheres (Artiodactyla, Anthracotheriidae, Microbunodontinae) from Indo-Pakistan, and Reassessment of the Age of the Caribari Deposits, Garo Hills, Bengal erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

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

Der Beitrag The Snout and Anterior Dentition of Early Miocene Anthracotheres (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Europe: Implications for Taxonomy, Systematics and Phylogeny erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

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

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

Der Beitrag Revision of Large Anthracotheres from the Early Miocene of Moghara, Egypt erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

A Descriptive Catalogue of Fossils from Wadi Natrun

scheungrab@pfeil-verlag.de — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 14:53:29 +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.

Der Beitrag A Descriptive Catalogue of Fossils from Wadi Natrun erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

A new look at Eurasian Neogene Pliohyracidae

Markus Pfeil — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 17:52:43 +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.

Der Beitrag A new look at Eurasian Neogene Pliohyracidae erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

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

Markus Pfeil — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:51:47 +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.

Der Beitrag Revision of the smaller-bodied anthropoids from Napak, early Miocene, Uganda erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

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

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 08:50:33 +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.

Der Beitrag The Fossil Suidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Ternifine (Tighenif) Algeria erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.

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

Markus Pfeil — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 15:49:10 +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.

Der Beitrag Land Snails from the Early Miocene Legetet Formation, Koru, Kenya erschien zuerst auf Pfeil Verlag.