Zanda (ZD1001) (Pliocene of China)

Where: Tibet, China (31.5° N, 79.8° E: paleocoordinates 29.4° N, 80.4° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Zanda Formation, MN 14 (4.9 - 4.2 Ma)

• said to be "early Pliocene (~4.4 Ma)" (presumably based on paleomagnetic stratigraphy), i.e., MN 14

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: "floodplain"; sandy siltstone and claystone

• the lower 200 m of the section consists of "Interbedded fine-grained sand and silt horizons showing extensive soft-sediment deformation and containing abundant mammal, gastropod and plant macrofossils are interpreted as marshy bog or overbank deposits within a low-gradient fluvial setting" and the middle 250 m of "an upward coarsening succession of lacustrine progradational parasequences" with "profundal lacustrine claystones and deltaic and wave-worked sediments, including evidence of occasional desiccation"; I assume most fossils are from the overbank facies

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the IVPP

Primary reference: T. Deng, X. Wang, M. Fortelius, Q. Li, Y. Wang, Z. J. Tseng, G. T. Takeuchi, J. E. Saylor, L. K. Säilä and G. Xie. 2011. Out of Tibet: Pliocene woolly rhino suggests high-plateau origin of Ice Age megaherbivores. Science 333:1285-1288 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 115623: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 02.09.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Aepyosciurus sp.
Mammalia
 Rodentia - Siphneidae
Prosiphneus cf. eriksoni
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Cricetidae "n. gen.", Nannocricetus sp.
Cricetidae "n. gen." Fischer von Waldheim 1817 rodent
Nannocricetus sp. Schaub 1934 rodent
 Lagomorpha - Leporidae
Trischizolagus cf. dumitrescuae
Trischizolagus cf. dumitrescuae Radulesco and Samson 1967 rabbit
 Lagomorpha - Ochotonidae
Ochotona "sp. 3"
Ochotona "sp. 3" Link 1795 pika
 Soricomorpha - Soricidae
Soricidae indet.
Soricidae indet. Fischer 1814 shrew
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Bovidae "gen. B", Bovidae "gen. A", Bovidae indet.
Bovidae "gen. B" Gray 1821 antelope
Bovidae "gen. A" Gray 1821 antelope
Bovidae indet. Gray 1821 antelope
"Antilospira/Spirocerus sp."
 Carnivora - Mustelidae
Mustela sp.
Mustela sp. Linnaeus 1758 weasel
 Carnivora - Felidae
Panthera (Uncia) "n. sp."
 Carnivora - Canidae
Vulpes "n. sp."
Vulpes "n. sp." Frisch 1775 fox