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A new species of the genus Megapeomys (Mammalia, Rodentia, Eomyidae) from the Early Miocene of Japan

Yukimitsu Tomida

ABSTRACT

In 1998, a large, peculiar eomyid rodent Megapeomys was described from theCzech Republic. An isolated lower molar found in Japan was identified as a species ofthe same genus. Direct comparison of the Japanese specimen with the Europeanmaterial makes distinction from the Czech species possible, and therefore a new spe-cies (M. repenningi) is described based on the characters of m1 with deeper synclinidIII and single (non-splitting) distal root, in addition to a slight difference in size. Thenew species from Japan may represent a somewhat more primitive species, at leastbased on the root morphology, than Czech M. lavocati. Two apeomyine species,Megapeomys bobwilsoni and Apeomyoides savagei recently described from NorthAmerica, can be distinguished from M. repenningi by clear morphological differencesincluding size, crown height, and number of roots.

Yukimitsu Tomida. National Museum of Nature and Science, 3-23-1 Hyakunincho, Shinjukuku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan. y-tomida@kahaku.go.jp

KEY WORDS: description; Eomyidae; Rodentia; Early Miocene; paleobiogeography; new species

INTRODUCTION

Small mammal fossils from the Tertiary wereextremely rare in Japan until recently. Followingthe first discovery of an eomyid jaw with p4 and anisolated m1 in 1989 (Tomida and Setoguchii 1994),more than 40 insectivore, lagomorph, and rodentspecimens have been found from a locality on theleft bank of Kiso River at Dota, Kani City, centralJapan. Originally these specimens were collec-tively called the Dota local fauna, but because theterm local fauna has not been favored recently, thisassemblage is simply called the Dota fauna here.Although eight taxa of small mammals have been

identified in the Dota fauna (Tomida 2000), themajority of the specimens have remained unde-scribed, except for the beaver Youngofiber (Tomidaet al. 1995). The present paper describes Mega-peomys, which is one of those eight taxa. It is rep-resented by only one isolated tooth. It was referredto Megapeomys sp. by Fejfar et al. (1998), but nowdirect comparison with the material of M. lavocatihas confirmed distinction of the Japanese speciesfrom the Czech species.

For dental morphology, the nomenclature ofEngesser (1990) and Fejfar et al. (1998) is used.

PE Article Number: 14.3.14.3.25ACopyright: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology November 2011Submission: 15 June 2007. Acceptance: 17 March 2011

Tomida, Yukimitsu. 2011. A new species of the genus Megapeomys (Mammalia, Rodentia, Eomyidae) from the Early Miocene of Japan. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 14, Issue 3; 25A:6p; palaeo-electronica.org/2011_3/16_tomida/index.html

TOMIDA: MIOCENE MEGAPEOMYS

GEOLOGY AND AGE

The Dota fauna is from the outcrops intermit-tently exposed on the left bank of Kiso River nearDota, Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, central Japan(Tomida and Setoguchi 1994, figure 1-1). Strati-graphically, those exposures represent about 10 mof sediment near the top of the upper member ofthe Nakamura Formation (Shikano 1995, figure10). That part of the formation consists of alternat-ing thin beds of fine sandstone, siltstone, and mud-stone, relatively thick sandstone with or withoutcross-beddings, and thin lignite beds (Shikano1995). Other than small mammals, many isolatedbones of fresh water fishes, including amiids(Yabumoto et al. 1999) and numerous isolated orpartly articulated pharyngeal teeth of cyprinids(Yasuno 1982), and freshwater bivalves (mostlyarticulated) are known from near the top of the for-mation. Carbonized plant material is also occa-sionally found from the sandstones (Shikano1995).

The geologic age of the Nakamura Formationhas been generally thought to be slightly youngerthan the underlying Hachiya Formation, which issupposed to be 22 – 19 Ma, based on fission trackdating. However, recent fission track agesobtained from the upper member of Nakamura For-mation (Kobayashi 1989; Shikano 1995) and moredetailed stratigraphic study of both formations sug-gest that the Nakamura and Hachiya Formationsmay have been deposited at about the same time,and the age of the upper member of the NakamuraFormation likely falls between 21 and 18 Ma atmost (Shikano 1995). However, if this wide rangeof ages is correct, the maximum makes the age ofthe lower member too old. Therefore, the age ofthe upper member is more likely around 19 Ma.

The Dota fauna currently consists of the fol-lowing eight taxa: one insectivore (Plesiosorexsp.), one lagomorph (cf. Amphilagus sp.), threecastorid rodents (Youngofiber sinensis, Anchitheri-omys sp., Eucastor ? sp.), and three eomyidrodents (Megapeomys sp. nov. (described below),gen. et sp. (= ancestral form of Keramidomys),gen. et sp. indet.) (Tomida 2000). They may be, ingeneral, correlated with MN 3 or 4 of the Europeanland mammal age zonation, but considering theabsolute age mentioned above, the fauna is morelikely correlative with MN 3. The absolute age ofMN 3 is considered to be between 20.5 and 18 Main Europe (Steininger 1999).

SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY

Class MAMMALIA Linnaeus, 1758Order RODENTIA Bowdich, 1821

Family EOMYIDAE Deperet and Douxami, 1902Subfamily APEOMYINAE Fejfar, Rummel, and

Tomida, 1998Genus MEGAPEOMYS Fejfar, Rummel, and

Tomida, 1998

Type Species.- Megapeomys lavocati Fejfar, Rum-mel, and Tomida, 1998, by original designation.

Megapeomys repenningi sp. nov.Figures 1 – 3

1995 - Geomyoidea gen. et sp. indet. Tomida andGoda, p. 57A.

1998 - Megapeomys sp. Fejfar, Rummel, andTomida, p. 138, figure 9.

Holotype: Isolated left lower first molar (m1)(NMNS-PV 20153). NMNS stands for the NationalMuseum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan,which was formerly called the National ScienceMuseum.

Etymology: To the honor of the late Charles A.Repenning, for his great contribution to the paleon-tology of rodents and other mammalian groups.

Type locality and age: Exposures on the left bankof Kiso River near Dota, Kani City, Gifu Prefecture,central Japan (Tomida and Setoguchi 1994, figure1-1), near the top of Nakamura Formation; likelyaround 19 Ma (21 – 18 Ma is greatest probablerange) and is correlated with MN 3 zone of Euro-pean land mammal age (see Geology and Agesection above).

Diagnosis: Relatively small-sized species of thegenus. Lower first molar with synclinid III deeper;lingual end of the synclinid III becomes shalloweronly slightly; distal root of m1 does not split towardthe tip.

Measurements: length of occlusal surface, 2.08mm; maximum length in lateral view, 2.20 mm;maximum width of mesial lobe (trigonid), ca. 2.16mm; maximum width of distal lobe (talonid), 2.32mm.

Description: Relatively deeply worn m1, barrel-shaped and relatively high crowned (for aneomyid). Mesial roots are broken at the base andnot securely known for number and shape. Distalroot is single with mesio-distally compressed plate-like shape, becoming only slightly narrower towardthe tip, and not splitting toward the tip. The enamelis rather thick as seen on the occlusal surface. Theocclusal surface is concave, and enamel wall on

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FIGURE 1. Photographs of the holotype (NMNS-PV 20153; left m1) of Megapeomys repenningi. 1 occlusal, 2 latero-basal, 3 buccal, 4 lingual, 5 mesial, and 6 distal views.

TOMIDA: MIOCENE MEGAPEOMYS

the lingual side is higher than buccal side. Thecrown consists of two, laterally elongated ovallobes separated by a deep transverse valley (syn-clinid III), which becomes shallower only slightlytoward the lingual end. Synclinid III is almosttransverse, but in detail it bends rather sharply at apoint somewhat buccal to the midpoint of the width.Mesial lobe is slightly narrower than distal lobe, butis about the same in mesio-distal length. Its centralvalley (synclinid II) is as wide as it can be relativeto the width of mesial lobe and is nearly transverse,only slightly diagonal to the mesio-distal directionof the tooth. Distal lobe is slightly wider thanmesial. Its central valley (synclinid IV) is short,only about two thirds of its maximum possiblewidth, and is skewed lingually. Beyond where thesynclinid ends, a small enamel island is present onthe buccal one third of the distal lobe.

Discussion: The holotype (NMNS-PV 20153) wasoriginally identified as m1 or m2 (Fejfar et al.1998), but it is here considered to be m1 based on(1) mesial lobe is narrower (although slightly) thandistal lobe and (2) hypoconid and posterolophidforms a moderately sharp angle, as observed inm1, rather than in m2 of M. lavocati.

M. repenningi is slightly larger (10%) than M.lavocati and is smaller than M. lindsayi, also fromBohemia. Although M. lindsayi is represented onlyby p4 (length 2.53 mm, width 2.50 mm in holotype),it is about 20% larger than M. lavocati (length 2.00mm, width 2.17 mm in holotype; Fejfar et al. 1998).The height of the lingual edge of synclinid III abovethe enamel base is about 40% of tooth length in M.

FIGURE 2. Line drawings of the holotype (NMNS-PV 20153; left m1) of Megapeomys repenningi. 1 occlusal, 2 buc-cal, and 3 lingual views.

FIGURE 3. Comparison between Megapeomys lavo-cati and M. repenningi. 1 and 3, m1 of M. lavocati; 2and 4, m1 of M. repenningi. 1 and 2, lingual and 3 and4, distal views. Dashed pattern on 4 indicates the inter-dental wear facet.

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repenningi, while it is nearly one half in M. lavocati,suggesting that synclinid III is deeper at its lingualend in M. repenningi than M. lavocati (Figure 3).

Distal roots of m1 and m2 in M. lavocati aresplit into two at approximately the lower one third ofthe root, unlike in M. repenningi (Figure 3; Figure 7of Fejfar et al. 1998). This may suggest that M.repenningi is somewhat more primitive than M. lav-ocati, because the same root is always single inApeomys, the ancestral form of the genus Mega-peomys (Fejfar et al. 1998).

Although the genus Megapeomys was origi-nally known from Europe (Czech Republic) andAsia (Japan), another species of the genus (M.bobwilsoni; Morea and Korth 2002) and a similarbut derived genus (Apeomyoides savagei; Smith etal. 2006) were recently described from NorthAmerica. In A. savagei, all cheek teeth are highercrowned than Megapeomys in general and moresothan M. repenningi in particular, although the sizeis similar to M. repenningi. M. bobwilsoni is thelargest species of the genus and has four roots onm1-2, while M. repenningi is a much smaller spe-cies and has three roots on m1. Thus, M. repen-ningi can be easily distinguished from apeomyinespecies from North America.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I deeply thank T. Goda who found most of theDota small mammal specimens, including the holo-type described above, and donated all his findingsto the National Museum of Nature and Science inTokyo. Also, I am indebted to O. Fejfar for his sup-port and encouragement and for use of hisresearch facilities when I examined the specimensof Megapeomys lavocati and other taxa fromMerkur-North, northern Bohemia, Czech Repub-lic. I sincerely thank L.J. Flynn and L.L. Jacobs fortheir criticism and suggestions on the manuscript.Figure 1 was prepared by Y. Okamoto, and anearly version of Figure 2 was kindly provided by O.Fejfar. Financial support was provided in part byGrant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) No.07640627 by Ministry of Education, Science,Sports and Culture of Japan and by Fujiwara Natu-ral History Foundation for 1998.

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