A Hyracoid from the Late Oligocene Red Sandstone Group of Tanzania, Rukwalorax jinokitana (gen. and sp. nov.)
A Hyracoid from the Late Oligocene Red Sandstone Group of Tanzania, Rukwalorax jinokitana (gen. and sp. nov.)
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坦桑尼亚渐新世晚期红砂岩群中的一种蹄鱼，Rukwalorax jinokitana（gen.和 sp. nov.）
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Gottfried
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
N. Stevens;P. O’Connor;E. Roberts;M. Gottfried
[摘要]在北方非洲和阿拉伯半岛发现了一系列引人注目的岩类化石，其中几个分类群不仅在埃及的法尤姆凹陷，而且在摩洛哥、阿尔及利亚、突尼斯、利比亚和阿曼（例如，Sudre，1979; Rasmussen，1989及其参考文献;托马斯等人，1989; Gheerbrant等人，2005年）。在这些动物群中，有大量的蹄兔类，占埃及Jebel Qatrani组L-41地点发现的哺乳动物群的90%（Rasmussen和Simons，1991年）。
在早第三纪期间，Hyracoids似乎已经达到了其多样性的顶峰，当时该群体在已知动物群中占主导地位的中小型草食性生态位（Schwartz等人，1995年）。在此期间，它们的体型跨越了兔子到犀牛的范围，表现出运动和饮食形态的多样性（Rasmussen等人，1996年）。从丘齿类Geniohyus，到常见的Lophoselenodont Thyrohyrax，Hyracoids蓬勃发展，假设了大量的壁龛，后来被移民的偶蹄类和奇蹄类占据（Schwartz et al.，1995年）。事实上，梳齿羚羊的趋避性导致了其肢体稳定性的特化，这表明在某些方面，它在运动习惯方面与现代跳羚趋同（Rasmussen和Simons，2000），而在另一个极端，后肢的颅后特化后来出现在一些procavids中，以允许岩石和树木攀爬的极端旋转（Fischer，1986）。
[Extract] A striking array of fossil hyracoids has been described from northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with several taxa recognized from Paleogene strata not only in the Fayum Depression of Egypt, but also in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Oman (e.g., Sudre, 1979; Rasmussen, 1989 and references therein; Thomas et al., 1989; Gheerbrant et al., 2005). Hyracoids were abundant in these faunas, comprising up to 90% of the mammalian fauna recovered from the L-41 locality in the Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt (Rasmussen and Simons, 1991).
Hyracoids appear to have achieved their apex in diversity during the Paleogene, at which time the group dominated the small-medium sized herbivorous niches in known faunas (Schwartz et al., 1995). During this time, they spanned a rabbit to rhinoceros range in body size, exhibiting a diversity of locomotor and dietary morphologies (Rasmussen et al., 1996). From the bunodont Geniohyus, to the common lophoselenodont Thyrohyrax, hyracoids flourished, assuming a vast array of niches that would later be occupied by immigrant artiodactyls and perissodactyls (Schwartz et al., 1995). Indeed, specializations for limb stabilization attributed to cursoriality in Antilohyrax pectidens suggest that in some ways it converged upon modern springboks in aspects of its locomotor habits (Rasmussen and Simons, 2000), whereas at the other extreme, postcranial specializations of the hind limb later emerged in some procaviids to permit extreme rotation for rock and tree climbing (Fischer, 1986).