A Late Miocene Huerzelerimys (Rodentia: Muridae) skull from Hezheng, Gansu, China

摘要: A skull with mandible and several cervicals of a new species of Huerzelerimys, H.asiaticus, collected from the Late Miocene Liushu Formation in Linxia Basin, Gansu Province,is described in this paper. The skull is the first one ever found for the genus Huerzelerimys. Its main characters are: size small; skull broad and short with stout rostrum; interorbital roof narrow;premaxillary laterodorsal crest well developed; frontal crests weak and subparallel; incisive foramina long, with their posterior ends lined up with anterior root of M1; posterior palatal foramina located mesial to M2; caudal border of hard palate lying posterior to M3;interpterygoid foramen absent; alisphenoid canal bony; bulla large and inflated; internal carotid foramen located near the basilar tubercle; mandible having low horizontal ramus and deeply concave diastema; anterior end of masseteric ridge lined up with anterior margin of m1; mental foramen situated slightly anterior to masseteric ridge and anteroventral to m1, near to mandibular diastema; upper incisors orthodont; M1 having slightly anteriorly located t1; in M1 and M2 t6 and t9 connected by distinct crest and t12 crest-like; t1 and t3 of M2 and t1 of M3 connected to t5; M3 having t3 and a large isolated t8; small Acc of m1 connected with both Alc and Abc; m1 and m2 having distinct buccal cingula, larger c2 attached to protoconid, and low crest-like posterior heel; m2 and m3 having isolated Abc; c1 absent in m3. The evolutionary level of the described skull tends to show that the age of the upper part of the Liushu Formation yielding H. asiaticus may belong to late Bahean, corresponding to European upper MN11 or lower MN12.