Source: China News Network
Fossil and line drawing of the skull of the Dzungar short-faced hedgehog (Photo: Gao Wei). Photo courtesy of Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, September 13 (Reporter Sun Zifa) Reporters learned from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) on the 13th that the researchers of the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found three kinds of short-faced hedgehog fossils in the early Miocene carnivorous fossil group 20 million years ago in central Inner Mongolia, and they have a strong ability to spread. Among them, the well-preserved Dzungar short-faced hedgehog with a well-preserved skull is more closely related to the North American short-faced hedgehog.
This important achievement paper on paleontological evolution research completed by the Mammal Research Group of the Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (about 21 million to 4 million years ago) was recently published online in the international professional academic journal "Historical Biology".
According to the researchers in the research group, the short-faced hedgehog is a strange, short-faced hedgehog with a significantly reduced number of teeth and similar split teeth similar to carnivorous. Compared to other members of the hedgehog family, their spatiotemporal distribution is rather limited. The subfamily Brachycephalus first appeared in the Early Oligocene (about 30 million years ago) in the Lake Valley region of Mongolia, and then gradually spread to northern China and the Northern Caspian Sea region of Kazakhstan, the Early Miocene began to appear in western North America, and the Late Miocene (about 9 million years ago) eventually all of them were extinct.
3D restoration of the Orban site excavated from the Dzungar short-faced hedgehog fossil (Photo: Zhang Shaoguang). Photo courtesy of Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The short-faced hedgehog in Asia is crucial for studying the origin and early evolution of this taxon, but the fossil material of the previously known short-faced hedgehog in Asia is very rare and fragmented, except for the short-faced hedgehog in Gansu Province, most of the genus fossils are only represented by jaws or scattered teeth, and the information available is limited and inaccurate.
The well-preserved fossil skull of the Junggar short-faced hedgehog found in this study shows that the Junggar short-faced hedgehog is more closely related to the North American short-faced hedgehog than other short-faced hedgehogs in Asia. Researchers speculate that a short-faced hedgehog closely related to the Dzungar hedgehog may have spread to North America along with several carnivorous meats until the early Miocene.
The researchers pointed out that the fossil discovery site of the Junggar short-faced hedgehog is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the original named origin of the species, Xinjiang Fuyun, confirming that the short-faced hedgehog and the large-eared hedgehog and a few members of the subfamily of living hedgehogs have extraordinary diffusion ability.
Site distribution map of short-faced hedgehog fossils has been found in China (Figure: Research Group). Photo courtesy of Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In addition, among the three fossils of the short-faced hedgehog found in the latest research, the other two are short-faced hedgehogs with different body size and morphological characteristics, which also shows that the short-faced hedgehog is not as rare as previously believed by the academic community, and it has considerable differentiation and diversity in suitable environments.
It is understood that the investigation and research of Neogene mammal fossils in central Inner Mongolia can be traced back to the fossil collection of the Swedish geologist Anderson on the Site of Erdengtu in Huade County in 1919, and several research work since then have made many sites in the area become well-known classical fossil sites in Neogene East Asia. In the 1980s, a number of small mammal groups were found in the Neogene strata of central Inner Mongolia, and a biostratigraphic chronology framework for the region was initially established based on rodent fossils. Since 2018, the Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has continued to cooperate with local research institutions to conduct systematic field investigations of neogene strata in central Inner Mongolia and further improve the research work of small mammals, especially non-rodents, in the region. (End)