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Andrianavalona, Tsiory H.; Ramihangihajason, Tolotra N.; Rasoamiaramanana, Armand; Ward, David J.; Ali, Jason R.; Samonds, Karen E.
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2015 |
Miocene shark and batoid fauna from Nosy Makamby (Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar).
PLOS ONE 10(6). 4 figs. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129444. June 15, 2015.
–ABSTRACT: Madagascar is well known for producing exceptional fossils. However, the record for selachians remains relatively poorly known. Paleontological reconnaissance on the island of Nosy Makamby, off northwest Madagascar, has produced a previously undescribed assemblage of Miocene fossils. Based on isolated teeth, ten taxonomic groups are identified: Otodus, Carcharhinus, Galeocerdo, Rhizoprionodon, Sphyrna, Hemipristis, Squatina, Rostroraja, Himantura and Myliobatidae. Six are newly described from Madagascar for the Cenozoic (Galeocerdo, Rhizoprionodon, Sphyrna, Squatina, Rostroraja and Himantura. In association with these specimens, remains of both invertebrates (e.g., corals, gastropods, bivalves) and vertebrates (e.g., bony fish, turtles, crocodylians, and sirenian mammals) were also recovered. The sedimentary facies are highly suggestive of a near-shore/coastal plain depositional environment. This faunal association shares similarities to contemporaneous sites reported from North America and Europe and gives a glimpse into the paleoenvironment of Madagascar's Miocene, suggesting that this region was warm, tropical shallow-water marine.
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Samonds, Karen E.; Ernat, Rebekah A.; Andrianavalona, Tsiory; Domning, Daryl Paul
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2019 |
New Miocene sirenians from Nosy Makamby, northwestern Madagascar.
Jour. Vert. Pal. 39(1): (15 pp.) 1 tab. 8 figs. e1570223 . DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2019.1570223. Jan. 2019; publ. online Apr. 5, 2019.
–French summ.
-ABSTRACT: The near lack of vertebrate fossils from the Cenozoic of Madagascar has left many of the details regarding the origin and evolution of the island's extant faunas unknown. However, recent fossil discoveries from Madagascar's nearshore marine deposits have begun to elucidate this mystery. These finds include sharks, bony fish, turtles, crocodylians, a middle Eocene sirenian (Eotheroides lambondrano), and the island's first fossil dolphin. We report here at least three (possibly four) different early (or possibly later) Miocene dugongid sirenians recovered from the island of Nosy Makamby, Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar. These include (1) a fragmentary braincase originally attributed to the genus Halitherium but here reidentified as a previously named species known only from Libya (Rytiodus heali; Dugonginae); (2) a newly named genus and species (Norosiren zazavavindrano) interpreted as a primitive relative of Xenosiren (Dugonginae); (3) a probable dugongine not yet identified with any known species; and (4) a taxon reported here as Metaxytherium cf. krahuletzi (Halitheriinae), the first Neogene halitheriine credibly reported from the Indian Ocean basin. This pattern of shallow marine environments harboring multispecies sirenian paleofaunas is seen elsewhere in the world, and these three or four contemporaneous sirenians represent the first glimpse into Madagascar's sea cow diversity during the Miocene. This specific time period is a poorly known and critical interval for interpreting Madagascar's past, and these specimens are potentially highly significant for reconstructing sirenian evolutionary and biogeographic history. Surprisingly, this sirenian fauna, so far, shares no genera with the roughly contemporaneous and relatively nearby one from Kutch, western India.
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Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia 