Shuitangba (Neogene of China)

Where: Yunnan, China (27.3° N, 103.7° E: paleocoordinates 26.9° N, 102.6° E)

When: Zhaotong Formation, Baodean (11.1 - 4.9 Ma)

• Reports by the Yunnan Provincial Museum of the initial discovery in 1960 of a ‘late Pliocene to Pleistocene’ mammal assemblage in the Zhaotong Basin included Felis sp., Zygolo- phodon sp., Stegodon zhaotongensis, Elephas sp., Tapirus sp., Equus cf. yunnanensis, Sus sp., Muntiacus and bovids (Chow & Zhai 1962). The precise locality was not known

•at the time of these early reports, although the authors compared the fossil matrix with lignite strata in the south- western region of Zhaotong. During the summer of 1978, Shi et al. (1981) were able to secure some fossils from a local lignite mine operated by Yongle Village in Dongjin Commune, east of the town of Zhaotong, as well as from Pleistocene gravel beds near Dazhai, in the western part of the basin. From the Yongle lignite bed they described Sinocastor zhaotongensis, Tapirus yunnanensis, Metacer- vulus sp., Stegodon sp. and Zygolophodon sp. The Yongle lignite mine in the 1970s and 1980s is now called Shuitangba, although the mining pit has been moved about a hundred metres to the west since the first discovery of the vertebrate fossils.

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; claystone

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: X. Wang, C. Grohé, D. F. Su, S. C. White, X. Ji, J. Kelley, N. G. Jablonski, T. Deng, Y. You and X. Yang. 2018. A new otter of giant size, Siamogale melilutra sp. nov. (Lutrinae: Mustelidae: Carnivora), from the latest Miocene Shuitangba site in northeastern Yunnan, south-western China, and a total-evidence phylogeny of lutrines. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 16(1):38-65 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 183982: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 24.01.2017, edited by Bethany Allen

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Angiospermae
 Sapindales - Rutaceae
Zanthoxylum trachyspermum n. sp.2 Zhu and Zhou 2016 citrus
Kunming Institute of Botany, STB003 (holotype), STB001-2, STB004-9
 Nymphaeales - Nymphaeaceae
Euryale yunnanensis n. sp.1 Huang and Zhou 2015 water lily
Kunming Institute of Botany, STB028 (holotype), over 500 specimens
Mammalia
 Perissodactyla - Tapiridae
Tapirus sp. Brisson 1762 tapir
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus cf. yunnanensis Colbert 1940 horse
 Artiodactyla - Suidae
Sus sp. Linnaeus 1758 pig
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
Muntiacus sp. Rafinesque 1815 muntjak
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Bovidae indet. Gray 1821 antelope
 Carnivora - Felidae
Felis sp. Linnaeus 1758 cat
 Carnivora - Mustelidae
Siamogale melilutra n. sp. Wang et al. 2018 otter
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
Elephas sp. Linnaeus 1758 elephant
 Proboscidea - Mammutidae
Zygolophodon sp. Vacek 1877 mastodon