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The first specimen of Deinotherium indicum (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Deinotheriidae) from the late Miocene of Kutch, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2020

Ningthoujam Premjit Singh ,
Advait M. Jukar Open the ORCID record for Advait M. Jukar [Opens in a new window] ,
Rajeev Patnaik ,
K. Milankumar Sharma ,
Nongmaithem Amardas Singh  and
Yumlembam Priyananda Singh
Ningthoujam Premjit Singh
Affiliation:
Centre for Advanced Study in Geology, Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014India
Advait M. Jukar*
Affiliation:
Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.20560, USA
Rajeev Patnaik
Affiliation:
Centre for Advanced Study in Geology, Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014India
K. Milankumar Sharma
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Central University of Punjab, City Campus, Bathinda, 151001India
Nongmaithem Amardas Singh
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Central University of Punjab, City Campus, Bathinda, 151001India
Yumlembam Priyananda Singh
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Central University of Punjab, City Campus, Bathinda, 151001India
*
*Corresponding author
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Abstract

Deinotheriidae Bonaparte, 1845 is a family of browsing proboscideans that were widespread in the Old World during the Neogene. From Miocene deposits in the Indian subcontinent, deinotheres are known largely from dental remains. Both large and small species have been described from the region. Previously, only small deinothere species have been identified from Kutch in western India. In the fossiliferous Tapar beds in Kutch, dental remains have been referred to the small species Deinotherium sindiense Lydekker, 1880, but the specimens are too fragmentary to be systematically diagnostic. Here, we describe a large p4 of a deinothere from the Tapar beds and demonstrate that it is morphologically most similar to Deinotherium indicum Falconer, 1845, a large species of deinothere, thereby confirming the identity of deinotheres at Tapar. Deinotherium indicum from Tapar is larger than other deinotheres identified from Kutch and is the first occurrence of the species in the region. This new specimen helps constrain the age of the Tapar beds to the Tortonian and increases the biogeographic range of this species—hitherto only known from two localities on the subcontinent. This specimen also highlights the morphological diversity of South Asian deinothere p4s and allows us to reassess dental apomorphies used to delimit Indian deinothere species. Lastly, we argue that by the late Miocene, small deinotheres in Kutch were replaced by the large Deinotherium indicum.

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Articles
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Journal of Paleontology , Volume 94 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 788 - 795
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Copyright © 2020, The Paleontological Society

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