Tupaiine tree shrews (Scandentia, Mammalia) from the Yuanmou Lufengpithecus locality of Yunnan, China

• Published in: Swiss journal of palaeontology Vol. 131; no. 1; pp. 51 - 60
• Main Authors: Ni, Xijun, Qiu, Zhuding
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel 2012; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Fossils; Lufengpithecus; Miocene; New species; Paleontology; Patellapis yunnanica; Soricidae; Teeth; Tupaia; China; Yunnan China; Scandentia; Baodean; Late Miocene
• ISSN: 1664-2376; 1664-2384
• DOI: 10.1007/s13358-011-0029-0

Tree shrew fossils are extremely rare. Here, we report two new tupaiine tree shrews, Prodendrogale engesseri sp. nov. and Tupaia storchi sp. nov., discovered from the late Miocene deposits of Yuanmou Lufengpithecus locality of Yunnan Province in China. P. engesseri is very close to the slightly younger species P. yunnanica Qiu (Vertebrata PalAsiatica, 24: 308–319, 1986 ) from the Lufeng Lufengpithecus locality of Yunnan Province. Relatively lower crowns and less trenchant tooth cusps of P. engesseri show that P. engesseri is more primitive than P. yunnanica . Tupaia storchi is a species larger than Palaeotupaia sivalicus Chopra and Vasishat, 1979, T. minor Günther, 1876 and T. javanica Horsfield, 1822, but smaller than all the other extant species of Tupaia and T. miocenica Mein and Ginsburg, 1997. The mesiobuccal side of the lower molar of this species develops a very strong cingulid. It should be interpreted as a primitive condition. Discovery of diverse tree shrew fossils in Yunnan suggests that multiple evolutionary lineages of tree shrews must have coexisted in a very large area in East Asia.