Cremohipparion cf. matthewi

Denis Geraards, 2017, Late Miocene large mammals from Mahmutgazi, Denizli province, Western Turkey, Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen 284 (3), pp. 241-257 : 248

Cremohipparion cf. matthewi ( ABEL, 1926 )

There are two complete upper tooth-rows ( Fig. 5D ), one with P3-M3, probably also a mandible with the front teeth and the premolars, and some more or less lower complete tooth-rows ( Fig. 5 E-G). The length of the series P2-P4 ranges from 64 to 68 mm, that of M1-M3 from 53 to 57 mm. The protocone is large and rounded on the upper premolars, and tends to connect anteriorly to the protoloph; it is smaller and more transversally compressed on the molars. The pli caballin is small, and sometimes multiple on the premolars. On a mandible, the diastema is rather short and the third incisor looks unreduced, but the specimen is not fully adult.

The metapodials are shorter and more slender than all other Turkish specimens measured by STAESCHE & SONDAAR (1979) from Kınık, Garkın, or Kayadibi, but are comparable with those of C. matthewi from Kemiklitepe A-B or Samos Q5 ( KOUFOS & VLACHOU 2005, figs. 43-44).

Although no substantial part of the skull is preserved, the size of the tooth-rows, and those of the short, slender metapodials unambiguously indicate that this hipparion belongs to a group of small-size forms, of which Cremohipparion matthewi is the most common representative, and we tentatively assign the small hipparion from Mahmutgazi to this species.

Figures

Fig. 5. Perissodactyla from Mahmutgazi. A-C – Hipparionini gen. et sp. indet. (A: upper P2–M3 Ma2-Gips24; B: upper P2-M3 Ma2-Gips3; C: lower p2-m3 ‘M’ [reversed from the right side]). D-G – Cremohipparion cf. matthewi (D: upper P2- M3 Ma1-Gips 17 [reversed from the left side]; E: lower p3-m3 ‘K’; F: lower p2-m2 ‘H’; G: lower p3-m3 ‘J’ [reversed from the right side]). H – Ancylotherium pentelicum, front view of proximal metacarpals Ma2-Gips21. Scale bar = 5 cm for Figs. A-G, 10 cm for Fig. H.