Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 39(1) 1996

Issue:

VOL 39(1) 1996

Keywords:

Upper Pleistocene, Muridae, Kumaun Himalaya, lake sediments

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First Upper Pleistocene Mus (Muridae, Rodentia) from the Indian subcontinent

• Bahadur S. KOTLIA

Abstract:

The taxonomic position and phylogenetic relationships of the first Upper Pleistocene Mus from the Indian subcontinent are presented. The fossil material has been recovered from fluvio-lacustrine sediments at Bhimtal-Bilaspur in the Kumaun Himalaya, north India. Mus dhailai Kotlia, 1995, is the first record of an essentially modern representative of this genus in the subcontinent. I suggest that Mus dhailai may be related to Mus shortridgei, now living in the subcontinent. On the basis of the radiocarbon dating of the sequence yielding the fossils, the age of the fossil horizon is estimated to about 45-52 Ka.