Volume 36 2000

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    Palaeontologia africana Volume 36
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000)
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    Extinct equids from Limeworks Cave and Cave of Hearths, Makapansgat, Northern Province, and a consideration of variation in the cheek teeth of Equus capensis Broom
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Churcher, C S Rufus
    Dental specimens of Hipparion libycum from Limeworks Cave, and Equus capensis from Cave of the Horse’s Mandible in the Limeworks Cave entrance and from Cave of Hearths on the farm Makapansgat in the Makapansgat Valley are described. The concept of restricted local formations within each cave is discussed. Qualitative variation in the cheek teeth of E. capensis, based on a sample of 40 upper and 60 lower permanent premolars and molars from Cave of Hearths, demonstrates that there appears to be no correlation in the occurrence of one enamel feature with another between teeth of presumed different individuals. Teeth within a molar row show similar development of features between teeth, whether premolar or molar, as shown by plis, progressive migration of the protocone isthmus along the row, and penetration of the buccal valley to between the enamel loops of the metaconid and metastylid. Consequently, earlier descriptions of species of large Pleistocene Equus in Southern Africa founded on isolated teeth and, using such qualitative variation, are inept, unsuitable and inappropriate, and modem taxonomies synonymising them under E. capensis are supported. The Cave of Hearths ‘loose breccia’ (Beds 1-3 of Mason, 1988) containing earlier Stone Age/Later Acheulean artifacts, is circumstantially dated between 300 000 and 200 000 years BP.
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    A captorhinid with multiple tooth rows from the Upper Permian of Zambia
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Gow, Chris E
    Captorhinids are some of the best known early amniotes. They range throughout the Permian and occur in North America, Europe, India and Africa. There are several small forms with single rows of marginal teeth, medium sized multiple-rowed forms typified by Captorhinus, and large forms most of which possess numerous rows of marginal teeth. As a group, captorhinids are extremely conservative in cranial morphology in most other respects. A small Late Permian, single rowed form has been recorded from the Madumabisa Mudstone of Zambia, equivalent in age to the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone of the Karoo Basin of South Africa. This paper records a multiple-rowed form from these rocks similar in size to Captorhinus, but with distinctive dentition
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    A new procolophonid (Parareptilia) from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone, Beaufort Group, South Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Gow, Chris E
    This paper describes the skull of a new genus and species of procolophonid from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone. It is strikingly different from its contemporaries, Procolophon trigoniceps and Owenetta rubidgei, but has a mosaic of characters of each.
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    Notes on the systematics of micromammals from Sterkfontein, Gauteng, South Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Avery, D M
    The micromammalian fauna from Sterkfontein Members 4 , 5E and 6 comprises 34 species. These include six insectivores, three bats, three elephant shrews and 22 rodents. Most of these taxa, or their equivalents, have been previously recorded. Four or five new additions were recovered from deposits probably belonging to Late Pleistocene Member 6, which have previously received little or no attention. Some previously recorded taxa were not found, but this was probably due to differences in identification rather than to the absence of these forms from the sample.