Postcranial materials of Pondaung mammals (middle Eocene, Myanmar)

Abstract

Diversity of the Pondaung mammalian fauna (middle Eocene Myanmar) has been explored based on the dental materials. In this paper, we provided photos of skeletal materials of a rodent, carnivores, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls. Postcranial morphology of the endemic Pondaung mammals are compared with those of related fossil species from North America and Europe, revealing additional postcranial diversity in Eocene carnivorans, dichobunid artiodactyls, ruminants, and chalicotherioid perissodactyls. The postcranial materials indicated a presence of an additional taxon, a very small artiodactyl, that has not been known from the dental materials of the Pondaung mammals. The differences in postcranial morphologies suggested a divers locomotory behavior among the mammals of the Pondaung fauna, such that scansors, generalized terrestrialists with cursorial tendency, and generalized terrestrialists with digging adaptations were present among the carnivorous mammals, and that small-sized and medium-sized ungulates distributed on various stages of cursorial adaptations.