Promephitis
| Promephitis | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Promephitis skull |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| middle Miocene to early Pliocene | ||||||||||||
| 9.3 to 4.9 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Promephitis | ||||||||||||
| Gaudry , 1861 | ||||||||||||
Promephitis is an extinct genus of Skunks , which has so far been described in seven species from the Miocene and early Pliocene of Europe and Asia .
features
The fossil remains of the Promephitis species, like all members of the Skunks (Mephitidae), have a significant expansion of the tympanic cavity - i.e. the part of the middle ear in which the eardrum is stretched - into the region of the wart part (pars mastoidea) and the scaly part (pars squamosa ) of the temporal bone into it. This expansion can be seen as a bubble-shaped bulge on the side wall of the brain skull above the wart part. In addition, Skunks have specific features of the teeth, especially the molars , that distinguish them from other predators . The genus Promephitis also shows a special design of the tooth structure of the premolar teeth P4 and very small P2, which distinguish them from other genera.
Distribution and temporal classification
Promephitis species lived in large parts of Eurasia and remains have been found in both Europe and Asia. The species of the genus Promephitis are classified in the late Tertiary . They occurred within this period in the mid to late Miocene and early Pliocene less than 10 million years ago.
Systematics
The genus was described in 1861 together with the type species Promephitis larteti by Jean Albert Gaudry for a find in Pikermi , Greece . Up to 10 species have been named since the first description, but their species status has been partially discarded. While older finds mainly consisted of teeth or fragments of pine trees, numerous well-preserved skull and skeleton finds from China and thus two new species were described by Wang & Qiu in 2004. Within the genus they name the following eleven species accordingly:
- Promephitis larteti Gaudry 1861
- P. maeotica Alexiev 1916
- P. alexjewi Schlosser 1924
- P. malustensis Simionescu 1930
- P. majori Pilgrim 1933
- P. hootoni Senyurek 1954
- P. pristinidens Petter 1963
- P. brevirostris Meladze 1967
- P. maxima He and Huang 1991
- P. qinensis Wang and Qiu 2004
- P. parvus Wang and Qiu 2004
|
Within the Skunks, the species of the genus Promephitis were compared to the (recent) stink badgers ( Mydaus ) from Southeast Asia, which still live in two species today . Together, Promephitis and the stink badger probably form the sister group of the fossil species Palaeomephitis steinheimensis , which is considered the oldest known species of the Skunks. Within the recent genera, the stink badgers represent the most primitive genus, the common taxon from them and the fossil genera mentioned is compared to all other skunks living today and other fossil forms as the most primitive group.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c X.-M. Wang, Z.-X. Qiu: Late Miocene Promephitis (Carnivora, Mephitidae) from China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24, 2004; Pp. 721-731 (abstract) .
- ↑ a b c Mikko Haaramo: Mephitinae in Mikko's Phylogeny Archive.
- ↑ Mieczysław Wolsan: Oldest mephitine cranium and its implications for the origin of skunks. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 44 (2), 1999; Pp. 223-230. ( Full text ; PDF; 2.0 MB).