Abstract

A new species of the genus Microbunodon (Anthracotheriidae, Artiodactyla) from the Miocene of Pakistan: genus revision, phylogenetic relationships and palaeobiogeography. — Zoologica Scripta, 33, 97–115. New unpublished remains of small Anthracotheriinae are described. First, materials from the upper Oligocene (MP 30) locality of La Milloque, southwest France, permit a review of the species Microbunodon minimum. Thereafter, fossils from the middle and late Miocene of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan are attributed to the European genus Microbunodon. Microbunodon milaensis sp. n. from the Nagri Formation (between 10.3 and 9.2 Ma), Pakistan, is described and the species M. silistrensis from the Lower Manchar Formation (between 16 and 15 Ma) and from the Chinji Formation (between 12.7 and 11.5 Ma), Pakistan, is reviewed. The new species represents the last occurrence of the subfamily Anthracotheriinae, around 9.3 Ma. Similar materials from the Bugti and Siwalik Hills were previously considered as a small Anthracotherium. Comparisons with M. minimum from the European late Oligocene lead to a complete revision of the genus and permit definition of a new set of characters, which separate Microbunodon from Anthracotherium. A cladistic analysis reconsiders phylogenetic relationships among Anthracotheriinae, separating an Anthracothema–Anthracotherium clade and an Anthracokeryx–Microbunodon clade. Microbunodon appears to stem from the Asian late Eocene–lower Oligocene genus Anthracokeryx. These results imply a new distribution of the genus Microbunodon showing exchanges between Europe and Asia during the late Oligocene and probably the lower Miocene.