Palaeontologia africana

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ISSN (print): 0078-8554 ISSN (electronic): 2410-4418 For queries regarding content of Palaeontologia africana collections please contact Jonah Choiniere by email : jonah.choiniere@wits.ac.za or Tel : 011 717 6684

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Author: search.filters.author.Pickford, MartinHas files: Yes

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    A fossil chrysochlorid skull in the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History: Robert Broom’s missing specimen unearthed?
    (Evolutionary Studies Institute, 2019-04) Mason, Matthew J.; Bennett, Nigel C.; Pickford, Martin
    An unlabelled, fossilized skull of a golden mole from the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, was examined through micro-computed tomography. Reconstructions show that the species in question has alveoli for nine teeth in each upper jaw, although only six teeth in total remain. The skull resembles those of the extant chrysochlorids Amblysomus and Calcochloris, which also have nine teeth, but in most respects it is closer to Amblysomus. The ear region, examined in detail, also proved to be very similar to that of Amblysomus. Damage to the teeth and palate are consistent with the brief descriptions of a fossil golden mole skull first mentioned by Robert Broom in 1948. This specimen, dating from the Plio-Pleistocene and provisionally identified as Proamblysomus antiquus, subsequently went missing. We argue that the skull described here is Broom’s lost specimen, but whether this fossil species really deserves generic distinction from extant groups remains unclear.
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    Cainozoic mammals from coastal Namaqualand, South Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1997) Pickford, Martin; Senut, Brigitte
    Fossil mamma ls from various stratigraphic levels in coastal Namaqualand reveal that the littoral marine deposits, hitherto correlated to the Plio-Pleistocene, range in age from Early Miocene to Ple istocene and Holocene. The faunal assemblages, described in stratigraphic orde r, consist predominantly o f large mammals, but most of the faunas also contain marine vertebrates and invertebrates. Faunas of Early Miocene(ca 17 Ma), Middle Miocene(ca 13- 12Ma), Late Miocene(ca 6-5 Ma), Plio-Pleistocene (ca 3-2.5 Ma) and younger age are documented .
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    Fossil eggs and Cenozoic continental biostratigraphy of Namibia
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1995) Senut, Brigitte; Pickford, Martin
    One kind of aepyornithoid and six kinds of struthious eggshells have been found in Cenozoic deposits of Namibia. Field evidence indicates that the six struthious egg types are time successive, and they thus form a useful basis for determining the relative stratigraphic positions of sites at which they occur. Their placement in the geological time scale has been partly tied down by reference to the biostratigraphic position of mammals that occur in association with them.
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    Karoo supergroup palaeontology of Namibia and brief description of a Thecodont from Omingonde
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1995) Pickford, Martin
    Karoo strata crop out extensively in Namibia. Numerous and diverse fossils have been collected from three areas - Karasberg, Kalahari and Huab Karoo basins. Although a great deal of research has been done on these strata and their fossil content, the literature is scattered and no publication has been devoted to a detailed review of what has been achieved. This paper presents a review based principally on a literature search allied to personal experience of some of the fossils and field trips to a few localities. It cannot pretend to be an in-depth review. The Namibian Karoo outcrops are so extensive and the palaeontological remains so diverse, that several years of intensive research would be required to achieve such a work. Tragically, many of the fossils mentioned in the text have been lost or their whereabouts are unknown. A small sample of fossils is housed in the Geological Survey Museum, Windhoek, and other fossils are known to be curated by the South African Museum, Cape Town, the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, Witwatersrand University and the Geological Survey of South Africa, Pretoria. A thecodont from the Omingonde Formation (Upper Triassic) is described briefly.
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    New Viverrinae (Carnivora: Mammalia) from the basal Middle Miocene of Arrisdrift, Namibia
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2001) Morales, Jorge; Pickford, Martin; Soria, Dolores; Fraile, Susan
    A new genus and species of viverrid of modern type, Orangic!is gariepensis, is described from the basal Middle Miocene locality of Arrisdrift in southern Namibia. It is the earliest known representative of the subfamily Viverrinae from Africa. Detailed examination of the mongoose-like carnivores of the early Miocene of Africa, hitherto all assigned to the family Viverridae, reveals that none of them are related to this group.
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    New mammutid proboscidean teeth from the Middle Miocene of tropical and southern Africa
    (BERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, 2007) Pickford, Martin
    The genus Zygolophodon is widespread but rare in Middle Miocene deposits of Eurasia, and until recently it was not reliably reported from sub-Saharan Africa. Most previous records of the genus in the latter continent are based on specimens of another proboscidean Eozygodon morotoensis. In 1985 a tooth from Tunisia was attributed to Zygolophodon and in 2002 four teeth from Egypt were attributed to the same genus, while in 2005 a fragment of lower third molar was found at Daberas Mine, Orange River, Namibia, and two upper molars were found in the Ngorora Formation, Tugen Hills, Kenya. The purpose of this note is to describe and interpret the Ngorora molars. Two newly discovered specimens of Eozygodon morotoensis from Uganda complete the paper.
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    Fossil hyraxes (Hyracoidea: Mammalia) from the Late Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene of Africa, and the phylogeny of the Procaviidae
    (BERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, 2005) Pickford, Martin
    A palate with much of the dentition from Aragai, Lukeino Formation (6 Ma) Kenya, is the most complete known specimen of a Late Miocene procaviid hyracoid. It shares several features with Dendrohyrax. The specimen is as large as the western tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax dorsalis, but it is attributed to a new species. D. dorsalis ranges through the tropical forests of Central and Western Africa, from Uganda to Gambia. As such the presence of a similar species at Lukeino provides evidence of the humid forest nature of the palaeoenvironment in the Tugen Hills during the Late Miocene. The fossil hyracoid specimens from the Early Pliocene of Langebaanweg, South Africa, are close in morphology to, but somewhat larger than, the extant bush hyrax, Heterohyrax brucei, but have some derived characters found in Procavia capensis. The cheek teeth are brachyodont, the lower premolar row is complete with a well-developed p/1 and there is a long diastema between the second incisor and the first premolar, all features recalling Heterohyrax. However, the depth of the mandible, the hypsodonty of the lower incisor, and the length of the premolar row relative to the length of the molar row are similar to the condition in Procavia and attest to the onset of molar enlargement relative to the rest of the dentition. In the overall context of the Procaviidae, Procavia is the most derived genus, and the presence of a few Procavia-like features in the Langebaanweg fossils indicate that the species concerned was probably already evident on the Procavia lineage, but the presence of several plesiomorphic characters reveals that it is a primitive member of the lineage. These also reveal that the specimens do not belong to Procavia cf. antiqua into which they were previously tentatively classified by Hendey (1976) as they are somewhat more derived. The detailed systematic status of the large extinct hyracoid Gigantohyrax maguirei, Kitching, 1965, from Pliocene cave fillings at Makapansgat, South Africa, has not previously been satisfactorily demonstrated, even though it is clear that most authors have considered it to be a procaviid closely related to Procavia. Kitching (1965) compared it only to species of Procavia. Re-study of the original sample, as well as additional fossils (three partial skulls, isolated upper premolar, fragment of mandible with a premolar) reveal that Gigantohyrax shares many features with the genus Dendrohyrax, fewer with Heterohyrax and even fewer with Procavia. It is concluded that among the Procaviidae, Gigantohyrax is most closely related to Dendrohyrax. The new discoveries of Late Miocene and Pliocene procaviids inKenya and SouthAfrica, when added to recently described associated upper and lower dental elements of Meroehyrax bateae from the base of the Middle Miocene of Uganda, permit a reappraisal of procaviid phylogeny. It is concluded that procaviids probably descended from Saghatheriidae, and that Pliohyracidae did not give rise to procaviids as previously thought by some authors.