Bugti Hills

Bugti Hills are a range of hills in eastern Balochistan, Pakistan. It includes the tribal tract called Bugti country. It is known for its fossils.

In 2001, a thirty-million-year-old Oligocene-aged fossil tooth from the Bugti Hills of central Pakistan was identified as from a lemur-like primate, prompting controversial suggestions that the lemurs may have originated in Asia.[1][2]

Palaeobiology

In addition to the potential lemur like primate the Bugti hills preserve the bones of a rich community of animals dating to the Oligocene and Miocene epochs through the Chitarwata Formation, which include the giraffid Bugtimeryx, abundant perissodactyl (odd-toed ungulate) remains, with chalicotheres being among the rarer members of the ecosystem. Rhinocerotoids are much more common and diverse, constituting the most abundantly present group of large mammals from the region. The group is represented by amynodontids, the enormous paraceratheriid Paraceratherium, crown rhinocerotines, elasmotheriines, and aceratheriines. Even early proboscideans were found within the Bugti hills, eventually leading to the replacement of paraceratheriids with deinotheres during the Oligocene-Miocene faunal turnover.[3] Rodents, Primates, an indeterminate Creodont and an indeterminate species of the Entelodont Paraentelodon have also been recovered from the hills[4]. Crocodylians were also present with three genera being found in the hills, with the gavialoids Rhamphosuchus pachyrhynchus and Pseudogavialis[5] and the crocodylian Astorgosuchus.[6] Sharks such as Cretalamna, Carcharhinus, Hemipristis and Nebrius were also present.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Marivaux L., Welcome J.-L., Antoine P-O., Métais G., Baloch I.M., Benammi M., Chaimanee Y., Ducrocq S., and Jaeger J.-J. (2001) A fossil lemur from the Oligocene of Pakistan. Science, 294: 587–591.
  2. ↑ "Do Pakistan Fossils Alter Path of Lemur Evolution?". news.nationalgeographic.com. 22 October 2001. Archived from the original on 11 April 2004. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  3. ↑ Métais, G.; Antoine, P.-O.; Baqri, S.R.H.; Crochet, J.-Y.; Franceschi, D.D.; Marivaux, L.; Welcomme, J.-L. (2009). "Lithofacies, depositional environments, regional biostratigraphy and age of the Chitarwata Formation in the Bugti Hills, Balochistan, Pakistan". Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 34 (2): 154–167. Bibcode:2009JAESc..34..154M. doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2008.04.006.
  4. 1 2 Chitarwata Formation at Fossilworks.org
  5. ↑ Courville, Erwan; Métais, Grégoire; Antoine, Pierre‐Olivier; Marivaux, Laurent; Jouve, Stéphane (2025). "Giant longirostrine crocodylians from the Lower Miocene of Pakistan: new material and taxonomic review". Papers in Palaeontology. 11 (3). doi:10.1002/spp2.70010. ISSN 2056-2799.
  6. ↑ Martin, Jeremy E.; Antoine, Pierre-Olivier; Perrier, Vincent; Welcomme, Jean-Loup; Metais, Gregoire; Marivaux, Laurent (2019-07-04). "A large crocodyloid from the Oligocene of the Bugti Hills, Pakistan". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39 (4) e1671427. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1671427. ISSN 0272-4634.


This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.