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Species identification in Megantereon: A reply to Palmqvist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Lars Werdelin  and
Margaret E. Lewis
Lars Werdelin
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden,
Margaret E. Lewis
Affiliation:
Biology Program, Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, PO Box 195, Pomona, New Jersey 08240
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Extract

Palmqvist (2002) has criticized our attribution of the mandibular ramus of Megantereon from South Turkwel, Turkana Basin, Kenya, to a new species, M. ekidoit (Werdelin and Lewis, 2000), suggesting instead that it “unequivocally” belongs to the African species M. whitei. We believe that this criticism stems from a misunderstanding of our statements and from an erroneous view of variability within Megantereon. In this reply we shall address Palmqvist's criticisms, showing that M. ekidoit is not synonymous with M. whitei, and also that the specific attribution of various Megantereon specimens is not as clear cut as Palmqvist (2002; Martinez Navarro and Palmqvist, 1995, 1996) believes.

Type
Comment and Reply
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , September 2002 , pp. 931 - 933
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society

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References

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