Cretaceous mammal remains from Kazakhstan

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

A new online paper:

Alexander O. Averianov, J. David Archibald, Pavel P. Skutschas &
Gareth J. Dyke (2014)
New mammal remains from the Late Cretaceous Bostobe Formation
(Northeast Aral Sea Region, Kazakhstan).
Palaeoworld (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1016/j.palwor.2014.10.009
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871174X14000444




Four recently collected mammal specimens from the Upper Cretaceous
(Santonian–?Campanian) Bostobe Formation in the northeastern Aral Sea
Region, Kazakhstan are attributed to Asioryctitheria indet. (an
edentulous dentary fragment) and the zhelestid Parazhelestes sp. cf.
P. mynbulakensis (a maxillary fragment with a double-rooted canine, an
M1, and a dentary fragment including m3). These new records double the
known mammal fauna from this formation, which previously included the
zhelestid Zhalmouzia bazhanovi and Zhelestidae indet. The taxonomic
and ecological structure of the mammal assemblage from the Bostobe
Formation can, on present evidence, be considered close to the other
eutherian dominated Late Cretaceous mammal assemblages of Central
Asia. This region is important in particular in the search for Late
Cretaceous ancestors of crown-group eutherian mammal clades
(Placentalia).