New study in progress: a history of exploration

23 October 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada.

A new study on the history of early exploration in the Quanshuiliang area (our most recent site) is in preparation. The study, led by Dr. Xiaoming Wang, re-examines the fossil localities and their geology in the context of a more modern framework.

The earliest explorations in the Quanshuiliang area was conducted by Swedish geologist Birger Bohlin; he was known as an all-around field scientist, often recording geography, geology, and paleontology of the areas he visit in greater detail than was customary for his time. Dr. Xiaoming Wang visited several archives in Sweden that hold Bohlin's original field notes, and reconstructed what Bohlin though he knew (and what we actually know today) about the locality area we call Quanshuiliang (and what Bohlin called the "General Strips").

[a 3D topological view of the Quansuiliang field area in the foreground, with the Olongbuluk mountains in the background; the new transect measured by our geologists in September 2009 is marked in red. Photo view is looking west]

Then, with the input of the Qaidam Basin expedition team members, we incorporated the geological and paleontological data gained from fieldwork in the region during the past decade to get a more current summary of our understanding of the area. One conclusion is that this is a very important area to explore a possible First Appearance Datum (FAD) of the three-toed horse Hipparion in east Asia (these horses immigrated to the Old World somewhere around 11.1 million years ago; we have some specimens right here in southern California that are very closely related to those first immigrants).

Please look forward to the findings in a future issue of the IVPP journal Vertebrate PalAsiatica!

~Jack

A new discovery from Tibet

6 October 2009. Edmonton, AB Canada

The 2009 expedition led by Dr. Qiang Li of the IVPP to the Zhada Basin in western Tibet yielded a new discovery very dear to my heart...

On the third day after the small team of seven arrived in the basin, they were prospecting along the badlands of the Zhada wash when team member Dr. Min Zhao came to a pile of scattered bones and teeth.

[part of the face of a hitherto unknown carnivoran on the Tibetan Plateau]

They were fragments of a fossil hyena. Unfortunately, only bits of the cranium were preserved; and although the dentary bones are more complete, the teeth are very busted.

[right dentary]

This exciting discovery awaits my next visit to Beijing. From the loss of p1, relatively slender premolars, very reduced P4 protocone and m1 metacone, and a three-cusped m1 talonid, I am guessing this beast belongs somewhere in the lineage of the hyena Chasmaporthetes.

Even though we still don't have a very good idea what the exact vertical distribution of mammal fossils is in the basin (or how much time the entire sequence encompasses), we are somewhere in the Plio-Pleistocene as the small mammals (mostly pikas) show.

[left dentary]

Interestingly, Chasmaporthetes is the only hyena to have made it to North America, the rest of the family confined to the Old World from Africa to East Asia. Chasmaporthetes and their relatives (Hyaenictis and Lycyaena) are found in East Asia in eastern China and the Siwaliks of India, but they have never been found on the Tibetan Plateau.

[pile o' hyena teeth; can't wait to put them back together]

Was the Tibetan Plateau such a barrier that large mammals that were widespread throughout the late Cenozoic of Eurasia were not present on that raised land in the middle of Asia? Some endemic bovids (see previous post) seem to support this point, but others like this new hyena challenge the idea of an isolated plateau fauna (or rather, refine the timing and extent of various isolation events). The story is probably complicated as current fossils show, and will take much additional work by future expeditions to tease out.

For now, I am content with a new hyena occurrence that we can point to and say: see, it was supposed to be there, we just didn't look hard enough...

~Jack

Meet the family

25 September 2009. Edmonton, AB, Canada,

The field activities of the IVPP-LACM party have officially come to a conclusion in 2009; even though individuals of our team may take trips throughout the world (Dr. Li Qiang is going to visit Russia next month), large-scale expedition will not resume until 2010.

That means all of us are now back in the office and/or laboratory, and thus begins our "other" life as indoor paleontologists. This is the time to reflect and research.

I have an ongoing project examining the skull biomechanics of extinct canids, the group so dear to Dr. Xiaoming Wang's heart (after all, he wrote a whole book about it). After scanning specimens from various museums over the past several years, a decent skull lineup of canid representatives is now ready to be analyzed.

[from left: Hesperocyon gregarius, Mesocyon coryphaeus, Borophagus secundus, Epicyon haydeni, and Canis lupus]

Five skulls of basal (Hesperocyon) to very derived (Borophagus) to modern (Canis) dogs are being analyzed digitally to reveal how their skulls are (or aren't) adapted to bone-cracking. The results will be useful in comparisons with the hyaenids which have extraordinary adaptations for consuming bone.

~Jack