Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:46:40.318Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Biometrical trends in the Tetraconodontinae, a subfamily of pigs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. van der Made
Affiliation:
Consejo Superior de Investigaciónes Cientificas, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, C. José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The Tetraconodontinae Lydekker, 1876 are a subfamily of pigs (Suidae) with a great variety of dental adaptations, such as greatly enlarged or reduced premolars, enlarged posterior molars, hypsodonty, enlarged incisors etc. The essence of most of these adaptations can be described very well by simple biometry. Size increase of the last molars has proved to be of importance in African biostratigraphy. However, it appears that members of different lineages have been mixed up.

Tendencies in relative premolar size indicate that the 21 species known can be grouped in three tribes: (1) the Tetraconodontini, with very large or even extremely enlarged premolars and, in one of the lineages, a tendency to enlarge the posterior molars; (2) the Nyanzachoerini new tribe, characterised by moderately enlarged or even reduced premolars and with a tendency to increase the length of the posterior molars by the addition of distal cusps; and (3) the Parachleuastochoerini new tribe, with relatively long but narrower premolars. Both Nyanzachoerini and Tetraconodontini include species that were placed previously in Conohyus and Nyanzachoerus.

A very long gradually evolving lineage in the Nyanzachoerini, spanning 13 Ma, is documented. In the last 5 Ma of this lineage, M3 length increased at such a rate that a (sub)species can be recognised about every 0·7 Ma. Slightly lesser rates of evolution are found in some other lineages, but still others experienced apparently long periods of stasis or very slow evolution. In a single case there is a period of stasis combined with a sudden evolutionary jump as in the punctuated equilibria model.

In the cases of intercontinental dispersal events combined with cladogenesis, where the ancestor in the continent of origin could be identified, the cause of cladogenesis seems to have been geographical isolation. Two tetraconodont lineages were restricted to Eurasia for about 5 Ma. During the Late Miocene, members of these lineages dispersed repeatedly to Africa. The Vallesian is a period of profound climatic changes which are reflected in changes in biogeography of many taxa. It is assumed that these and later climatic changes enabled the dispersal of Tetraconodontinae to Africa.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agustí, J., Cabrera, L. Moyà-Solà, S. 1984. Sinopsis estratigráfica del Néogeno de la fosa del Vallès-Penedés. Paleontotogía y evolución 18, 5781.Google Scholar
Agustí, J., Köhler, M., Moyà-Solà, S., Cabrera, L., Garcés, M. Parés, J. M. 1996. Can Llobateres: the pattern and timing of the Vallesian hominoid radiation reconsidered. Journal of Human Evolution 31, 143–55.Google Scholar
Arambourg, C. 1968. Un Suidé fossile nouveau du Miocène supérieur de l'Afrique du Nord. Bulletin Géologique de France, série 7 10, 110–15, plate 3.Google Scholar
Azanza, Asensio B. 1986. Estudio geologico y Palaeontológico del Mioceno del sector oeste de la comarca de Borja. Cuadernos de éstudios Borjanos, XVII–XVIII, 63126.Google Scholar
Azzaroli, A. 1989. On the affinities of a fossil suid from the hominoid bearing Siwalik deposits of the Indian Subcontinent. In Sahni, A. Gaur, R. (eds) Perspectives in Human Evolution, 261–8. Delhi: Renaissance Publishing House.Google Scholar
Barry, J. C. Flynn, L. J. 1990. Key biostratigraphic events in the Siwalik sequence. In Lindsay, E. H., Fahlbusch, V. Mein, P. (eds) European Neogene Mammal Chronology, 557–71. New York & London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Barry, J. C., Lindsay, E. H. Jacobs, L. L. 1982. A biostratigraphic zonation of the middle and upper Siwalihs of the Potwar Plateau of Northern Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeocology 37(1), 95130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blainville, H. M. D. de 1847. Ostéographie ou description iconographique comparée du squelette et du système dentaire des mammifères récents et fossiles pour servir de base à la Zoologie et à la Géologie. Vol. 4 A A. Sur les Hippopotames et les Cochons, 1248, Atlas vol. 4, 93 Plates. Paris: J. B. Ballière et fils.Google Scholar
Broom, R. 1925. On evidence of a giant pig from the late Tertiaries of South Africa. Records of the Albany Museum 3, 307308.Google Scholar
Brown, F. H. Feibel, C. S. 1991. Stratigraphy, Depositional Environments and Palaeogeography of the Koobi Fora Formation. In Harris, J. M. (ed) Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 3. The fossil ungulates: geology, Fossil Artiodactyls and Palaeoenvironments, 130. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bruijn H., de, Daams, R., Daxner-Höck, G., Fahlbusch, V., Ginsburg, L., Mein, P., Morales, J., Heizmann, E., Mayhew, D. F., Van der, Meulen A. J., Schmidt-Kittler, N. Telles Antunes, M. 1992. Report of the RCMNS working group on fossil mammals, Reisensburg 1990. Newsletters on Stratigraphy 26(2/3), 65118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guanfang, Chen 1984. Suidae and Tayassuidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the Miocene of Steinheim a. A. (Germany). Palaeontographica 184(1-4), 7983.Google Scholar
Colbert, E. H. 1935. Siwalik mammals in the American Museum of Natural History. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New York 26, 1401.Google Scholar
Colbert, E. H. 1938. Fossil Mammals from Burma in the American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 74, 255436.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1976. Suidae from Plio-Pleistocene strata of the Rudolf Basin. In Coppens, Y., Howell, F. C., Isaac, G. L. and Leakey, R. E. F. (eds) Earliest man and environments in the Lake Rudolf Basin, 251–63. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1978a. Upper Miocene-Pleistocene Suidae. In Maglio, V. J. Cooke, H. B. S. (eds) Evolution of African Mammals 453–82. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1978b. Suid evolution and correlation of African hominid localities: an alternative taxonomy. Science 201, 460–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooke, H. B. S. 1978c. Pliocene-Pleistocene Suidae from Hadar, Ethiopia. Kirtlandia 29, 163.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1985. 8. Plio-Pleistocene Suidae in relation to African hominid deposits. In Beden, M. M., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Boaz, N. T., Bonnefille, R., Brain, C. K., Cooke, B., Coppens, Y., Deschamps, R., Eisenmann, V., Gentry, A., Geraads, D., Gèze, R., Guérin, C., Harris, J., Koeniguer, J. C., Letouzey, R., Petter, G., Vincents, A. Vrba, E. (eds) L'Environnement des hominidés au Plio-Pleistocène, 101–15. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1987. 18. Fossil Suidae from Sahabi, Libya. In Boaz, N. T., El-Arnauti, A., Gaziry, A. W., de, Heinzelin J. Boaz, D. D. (eds) Neogene Paleontoogy and Geology of Sahabi, 255–66. New York: Alan R. Liss.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S. 1993. Undescribed suid remains from Bolt's Farm and other Transvaal Cave Deposits. Palaeontographiea Africana 30, 723.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S., Coryndon, S. C. 1970. Pleistocene mammals from the Kaiso Formation and other related deposits in Uganda. In Leakey, L. S. B. Savage, R. J. G. (eds) Fossil Vertebrates of Africa vol. 2 109224.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S., Ewer, R. F. 1972. Fossil Suidae from Kanapoi and Lothagam, Northwestern Kenya. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 143(3), 150295.Google Scholar
Cooke, H. B. S., Hendey, Q. B. 1992. Nyanzachoerus (Mammalia: Suidae: Tetraconodontinae) from Langebaanweg, South Africa. Durban Museum Novilates 17, 120.Google Scholar
Coppens, Y. 1971. Une nouvelle espèce de Suidé du Villafranchien du Tunesie, Nyanzachoerus jaegeri nov. sp. Comptes-Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, Série D 272, 3264–7.Google Scholar
deMenocal, P. B. 1995. Plio-Pleistocene African Climate. Science 270, 53–9.Google Scholar
Depéret, Ch. 1892. La faune de mammifères de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère). Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Lyon 5, 193, 1 plate.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietrich, W. O. 1942. ältestquartäre Säugetier aus der südlichen Serengeti, Deutsch-Ostafrika. Palaeontographica, Abt. A 94, 43133, pls. 3-22.Google Scholar
Ducroq, S., Chaimanee, Y., Suteethorn, V. Jaeger, J. J. 1994. Ages and paleoenvironment of Miocene mammalian faunas from Thailand. Paleogeographv, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecoloqy 108, 149–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falconer, H. 1868. Description of a fragment of a jaw of an unknown extinct pachydermous animal, from the Valley of the Murkunda. Tetraconodon magnum vel Choeritherium. In Murchinson, C. (ed.) Palaeontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer. A.M., M.D. Vol. 1 Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis, 149–56. London: Robert Hardwicke.Google Scholar
Falconer, H. Cautley, T. 1847. Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis. London:.Google Scholar
Fortelius, M. 1990. Problems with using fossil teeth to estimate body sizes of extinct mammals. In Damuth, J. MacFadden, B. J. (eds) Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology. Estimation and Biological Implications, 207–29. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fortelius, M. Bernor, R. L. 1990. A provisional systematic assessment of the Miocene Suoidea from Paşalar, Turkey. Journal of Human Evolution 19, 509–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortelius, M., Van, der Made J. Bernor, R. L. 1996. Middle and Late Miocene Suoidea of Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean: Evolution, Biogeography, and Paleoecology. In Bernor, R. L., Fahlbusch, V. Mittmann, H. W. (eds) The Evolution of Western Eurasian Neogene Mammal Faunas. 348–77. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Fraas, O. 1870. Die Fauna von Steinheim. Mit Rücksicht auf die miocenen Säugetier- und Vogelreste des Steinheimei Beckens. Jahreshefte der Vereinigung Vaterländische Naturkunde Württembergs 26, 145306, pls 4-13.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. W. 1980. Fossil Bovidae (Mammalia) from Langebaanweg, South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 79(8), 213 337.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, L. 1977. Sur la répartition stratigraphique de Conohyus simorrensis (Suidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) dans le Miocène européen. Comptes-Réndus Sommaires de la Société Géologique de France 4, 203 5.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, L. 1986. Chronology of the European Pliopithecids. In Else, J. G. Lee, Ph. C. (eds) Primate Evolution, 4757. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Golpe, posse J. Ma. 1972. Suiformes del Terciario Español y sus yacimientos. Paleontología y Evolutión 2, 1197, 7 plates.Google Scholar
Gray, J. E. 1821. On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals. London Medical Repository 15(1), 296310.Google Scholar
Haq, B. U., Hardenbol, J. Vail, P. R. 1987. Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic. Science 235, 1156–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, J. M. 1983. Family Suidae. In Harris, J. M. (ed.) Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 2. The fossil ungulates: Proboscidea, Perissodactyla, and Suidae, 215302. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Harris, J. M. 1987. 10 Artiodactyla. 10.1 Fossil Suidae fom Laetoli. In Leakey, M. D. Harris, J. M. (eds) Laetoli, a Pliocene site in Northern Tanzania, 349–58. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Harris, J. M. White, T. D. 1979. Evolution of the Plio-Pleistocene African Suidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 69, 1128.Google Scholar
Heissig, K. 1989. Conohyus huenermanni n. sp., eine kleine Schweineart aus der Obern Süsswassermolasse Bayerns. Mitteilungen der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Historische Geologic 29, 235–40.Google Scholar
Hendey, Q. B. 1981. Palacoecology of the late Tertiary fossil occurrences in 'E' Quarry, Langebaanweg, South Africa, and a reinterpretation of their geological context. Annals of the South African Museum 84(1), 1 104.Google Scholar
Hopwood, A. T. 1926. Fossil Mammalia. In Wayland, E. J. (ed.) The geology and palaeontology of the Kaiso Bone Beds. Occasional Papers of the Geological Survey of Uganda 22, 1336.Google Scholar
Johnson, N. M., Opdyke, N. D., Johnson, G. D., Lindsay, E. H. Tahirkheli, R. A. K. 1982. Magnetic polarity stratigraphy and ages of Siwalik Group rocks of the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 37, 1742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaup, J. J. 1859. Beiträge zur näheren Kenntnis der urweltlichen Säugethiere. Vol.4, 131. Darmstadt.Google Scholar
Kotsakis, T. Inigo, S. 1980. Osservazioni sui Nyanzachoerus (Suidae, Artiodactyla) del Terziario superiore di Sahabi (Cirenaica-Libia). Bollettino del Servizio Geologico d'Italia C, 391407.Google Scholar
Krijgsman, W., Langereis, C. G., Daams, R. Van der Meulen, A. J. 1994. Magnetostratigraphic dating of the middle Miocene climate change in the continental deposits of the Aragonian type area in the Calatyud-Teruel basin (Central Spain). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 128, 513–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krijgsman, W., Garcés, M., Langereis, C. G., Daams, R., Van Dam, J., Van, der Meulen A. J., Agustí, J. Cabrera, L. 1996. A new Chronology for the middle to late Miocene continental record in Spain. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 142, 367–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lartet, E. 1851. Notice sur la Colline de Sansan, suivi d'une Récapitulation des diverses espèces d'animaux vertébrès fossiles, trouvés soit à Sansan dans d'autres Gisements du terrain teritiare miocène dans le bassin sous-pyrénéen. Auch.Google Scholar
Leakey, L. S. B. 1943. New fossil Suidae from Shungura, Omo. Journal of the East African Natural History Society 17, 4561, 7 pls.Google Scholar
Leakey, L. S. B. 1958. Some East African Pleistocene Suidae. Fossil Mammals of Africa 14, 1133.Google Scholar
Leonardi, P. 1952. Resti fossili di Sivachoerus del giacimento di Sahabi in Cirenaica (Africa settentrionale). Notizie preliminari. Rendiconti Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Series 8 13, 166–9.Google Scholar
Legendre, S. 1986. Analysis of mammalian communities from the Late Eocene and Oligocene of southern France. Palaeovertebrata 16(4), 191212.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1876. Fossil mammalian faunae of India and Burma. Records of the Geological Survey of India 9, 86106.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1878. Notices of Siwalik mammals. Records of the Geological Survey of India 11, 64104.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1884. Indian Tertiary and post-Tertiary Vertebrata. Siwalik and Narbada Bunodont Suina. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Palaeontographica Indica, Series 10 3(2), 35104.Google Scholar
Lydekker, R. 1885. Catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part II Containing The Order Ungulata, Suborder Artiodactyla. London: The Trustees of the British Museum.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1989. A Conohyus-lineage (Suidae, Artiodactyla) from the Miocene of Europe. Revista Española de Paleontología 4, 1928.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1990a. Iberian Suoidea. Paleontologia i Evoloció 23, 8397.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1990b. A range chart for European Suidae and Tayassuidae. Paleontologia i Evoloció 23, 99104.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1991. Sexual bimodality in some recent pig populations and application of the findings to the study of fossils. Zeitschrift für Saugetierkunde 56, 81–7.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1992. Migrations and climate. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 153, 2739.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1993. Artiodactyla and the timing of a Middle Miocene climatical change. Premier Congrès Européen de Paléontologie, Lyon. 7-9/7/1994, 128.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1994. Suoidea from the Lower Miocene of Cetina de Aragón, Spain. Revista Española de Paleontología 9(1), 123.Google Scholar
Made J., van der 1996. Listriodontinae (Suidae, Mammalia), their evolution, systematics and distribution in time and space. Contributions to Tertiary and Quaternary Geology 33(1-4), 3254.Google Scholar
Made J., van der Defen, Han 1994. The Suoidea from the hominoid locality Lufeng (Yunnan, China). Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen 97(1), 2782.Google Scholar
Made J., van der Tuna, V. 1998. A tetraconodontine pig from the Upper Miocene of Turkey. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 89, 227230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mein, P. 1990. Updating of MN zones. In Lindsay, E. H., Fahlbusch, V. Mein, P. (eds) European Neogene Mammal Chronology, 7390. New York & London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Miller, K. G., Mountain, G. S. the Leg 150 Shipboard Party, and Members of the New Jersey Coastal Plain Drilling Project, 1996. Drilling and Dating New Jersey Oligocene-Miocene Sequences: Ice Volume, Global Sea Level, and Exxon Records. Science 271, 1092–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, H. S. 1927. On the Skulls of Early Tertiary Suidae, together with an Account of the Otic Region in some other Primitive Artiodactyla. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 215B, 389460.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1981a. Parachleuastochoerus (Mammalia, Suidae). Estudios Geologicos 37, 313–20.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1981b. Preliminary Miocene Mammalian Biostratigraphy for Western Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 10, 7397.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1986. A revision of the Miocene Suidae and Tayassuidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) of Africa. Tertiary Research Special Paper 7, 183.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1987. Miocene Suidae from Arrisdrift, South West Africa-Namibia. Annals of the South African Museum 97(10), 283–95.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1988. Revision of the Miocene Suidae of the Indian Subcontinent. Münchener Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, Reihe a, Geologie und Paläontologie 12, 191.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1989. New specimens of Nyanzachoerus waylandi (Mammalia, Suidae, Tetraconodontinae) from the type area, Nyaburogo (Upper Miocene), Lake Albert Rift, Uganda. Geobios 22(5), 641–51.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1990. Révision des suidés de la Formation de Beglia (Tunesie). Annales de Paléontologie 76(2), 133–41.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1993. Old world suoid systematics, phytogeny, biogcography and biostratigraphy. Paleontologia i Evolució 26–27, 237–69.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1994. Fossil Suidae of the Albertine Rift, Uganda-Zaire. In Pickford, et al. (eds) Geology and Palaeobiology of the Albertine Rift Valley, Uganda-Zaire, Vol. 2, Palaeobiology, 339–73. Orléans: CIFEG Occasional Publications.Google Scholar
Pickford, M. 1995. Suidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from the early Middle Miocene of Arrisdrift, Namibia: Namachoerus (gen. nov.) moruoroti, and Nguruwe kijivium. Comptes-Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Paris série 2a 320, 319–26.Google Scholar
Pickford, M., Senut, B. Hadoto, D. 1993. Geology and palaeobiology of the Albertine Rift Valley Uganda-Zaire. Volume I: Geology, Orléans: CIFEG.Google Scholar
Pilgrim, G. E. 1925. Presidential address to the geological section of the 12th Indian Science Congress. Proceedings of the 12th Indian Science Congress, 200–18.Google Scholar
Pilgrim, G. E. 1926. The Fossil Suidae of India. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, New Series 8(4).Google Scholar
Richard, M. 1946. Contribution à l'étude du bassin d'Aquitaine. Les gisements de Mammifères tertiaires. Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France. Nouvelle Série XXIV(52), 1350.Google Scholar
Rögl, F. Steininger, F. F. 1983. Vom Zerfall der Tethys zu Mediterran und Paratethys. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 85A, 135–63.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1945. The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85, 1350.Google Scholar
Stehlin, H. G. 1899-1900. Ueber die Geschichte des Suiden-gebisses. Abhandlungen der Schweizerischen Paläontologischen Gesellschaft (first part, 1899) 26, 1336; (second part, 1900) 27, 337-527.Google Scholar
Thenius, E. 1952. Die Säugetierfauna aus dem Torton von Neudorf an der March (CSR). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 96(1), 27136.Google Scholar
Tobien, H. 1936. Mitteilungen über Wirbeltierreste aus dem Mittelpliocän des Natrontales (Aegypten). 7. Artiodactyla, A. Bunodontia. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 88, 4253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trofimov, B. A. 1949. The oldest representative of the primitive pigs in Asia. Doklady Akademia Nauk CCCP 67(1), 145–8 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Verma, B. C., Gupta, S. S. Tewari, A. P. 1981. A new fossil suid from the upper Pliocene of Siwalik Fossil Park, Saketi, Sirmur District, Himachal Pradesh. In Sastry, M. V. A., Kurien, T. K., Dutta, A. K. Biswas, S. (eds) Neogene/Quaternary Boundary Field Conference, India, 1979. Proceedings, 1981, 203–6.Google Scholar
West, R. M., Hutchison, J. H. Munthe, J. 1991. Miocene vertebrates from the Siwalik group, western Nepal. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 11(1), 108–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, T. D. Harris, J. M. 1977. Evolution of the Plio-Pleistocene African Suidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 69(2), 1128.Google Scholar