Oligocene mammals from Ethiopia and faunal exchange between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia

John Kappelman (), D. Tab Rasmussen, William J. Sanders, Mulugeta Feseha, Thomas Bown, Peter Copeland, Jeff Crabaugh, John Fleagle, Michelle Glantz, Adam Gordon, Bonnie Jacobs, Murat Maga, Kathleen Muldoon, Aaron Pan, Lydia Pyne, Brian Richmond, Timothy Ryan, Erik R. Seiffert, Sevket Sen, Lawrence Todd, Michael C. Wiemann and Alisa Winkler
Additional contact information
John Kappelman: University of Texas
D. Tab Rasmussen: Washington University
William J. Sanders: University of Michigan
Mulugeta Feseha: University of Texas
Peter Copeland: University of Houston
Jeff Crabaugh: University of Wyoming
John Fleagle: State University of New York
Michelle Glantz: Colorado State University
Adam Gordon: University of Texas
Bonnie Jacobs: Southern Methodist University
Murat Maga: University of Texas
Kathleen Muldoon: Washington University
Aaron Pan: Southern Methodist University
Lydia Pyne: University of Texas
Brian Richmond: George Washington University
Timothy Ryan: Duke University
Erik R. Seiffert: Duke University
Sevket Sen: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Paléontologie
Lawrence Todd: Colorado State University
Michael C. Wiemann: USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Alisa Winkler: Southern Methodist University

Nature, 2003, vol. 426, issue 6966, 549-552

Abstract: Abstract Afro-Arabian mammalian communities underwent a marked transition near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary at approximately 24 million years (Myr) ago. Although it is well documented that the endemic paenungulate taxa were replaced by migrants from the Northern Hemisphere, the timing and evolutionary dynamics of this transition have long been a mystery because faunas from about 32 to 24 Myr ago are largely unknown1. Here we report a late Oligocene fossil assemblage from Ethiopia, which constrains the migration to postdate 27 Myr ago, and yields new insight into the indigenous faunal dynamics that preceded this event. The fauna is composed of large paenungulate herbivores and reveals not only which earlier taxa persisted into the late Oligocene epoch but also demonstrates that one group, the Proboscidea, underwent a marked diversification. When Eurasian immigrants entered Afro-Arabia, a pattern of winners and losers among the endemics emerged: less diverse taxa such as arsinoitheres became extinct, moderately species-rich groups such as hyracoids continued into the Miocene with reduced diversity, whereas the proboscideans successfully carried their adaptive radiation out of Afro-Arabia and across the world.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02102

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