Artiodactyl specimens from the Udunga fauna

Abstract

Artiodactyla is the most dominant mammal in the Udunga fauna, and more than 2000 specimens have been recognized in the fossil materials to date. In this small study we provisionally identified ten taxa, including four species of cervids and six species of bovids based on antler and horn morphology, but the identification operation has not yet been completed. Most of the artiodactyl specimens are of dental and bone fragments, so it is very hard to identify the taxa on the genus and/or species level. In order to classify the postcranial materials we tried the statistical analyses on four kinds of the hind limb bones, such as astragalus, distal tibia, calcaneus, and naviculocuboid. Although we could not get the sufficient result from this work, we classify the specimens into several groups. These analyses would be useful for higher taxa classification of fossil artiodactyls.