New data on the Neogene anthracotheres (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from central Myanmar

Gnatho-dental specimens of the anthracotheres (Mammalia; Artiodactyla) from the four Neogene localities of central Myanmar are described. Four species of anthracotheres are recognized in the Neogene of central Myanmar: Microbunodon silistrensis and a small bothriodontine from the middle Miocene; and Microbunodon milaensis and Merycopotamus dissimilis from the latest Miocene to Pliocene. This discovery extends the temporal range of Microbunodon up to the Pliocene. The co-occurrence of forest-dwelling Microbunodon and grass-eating and semi-aquatic Me. dissimilis reinforces that central Myanmar was less arid and had a wider range of habitats than the northern Indian Subcontinent during the Pliocene. This implies the possibility that Pliocene Southeast Asia might have been a refugium for some late Miocene forest-dwelling ungulates.