元谋新第三纪食肉动物化石的初步观察

A PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION ON CARNIVORA FROM THE NEOGENE LOCALITY OF YUANMOU, YUNNAN

本文对云南元谋盆地产古猿化石地点的部分食肉类化石进行了初步观察分类,认为它们的时代似应稍晚于禄丰,相当上新世早期,估计距今5-6百万年.

This paper only reports the preliminary determination of the Carnivora fossils from the Neogene Localities of Yuanmou County, Yunnan. A detailed study of these specimen will be published in future article. Most of the specimen were collected from the Ramapithecus Locality of Xiaohe, Yuanmou county. There are 19 species belonging to 15 genera of 6 families. In comparison with the Remapithecus fauna of Lufeng and Yushe (I) fauna of North China, the Ramapithecus fauna of Yuanmou has its own distinguishing features and 9 or 10 genera are common (as shown in Table 2) respectively. But only five genera are similar to Dhok-Panthan of Middle Siwalik and six are in Pinjor of Upper Siwalik. The Ictitherium are quite rare and larger in size, but the Lufeng locality is abundant in Ictitherium and it's minor in size. Judging from the comparisons of the features of same forms (i.e. Ictitherium and Viverra etc.), the Carnivora of Yuanmou can made some progress. According to the composition and the features of the Carnivora, it is possible that the geological age of Yuanmou Fauna is later than Lufeng Fauna. The larger cats and bears are forestdwelling usually. Trochotherium and some mustelids reflect restricted palaeoecological environments general associated with aquatic conditions. The Viverra etc. are typical beasts inhabiting tropic or subtropic forests.