Buhakia hyaenoides ( MORALES et al., 2003)

Morales, Jorge & Pickford, Martin, 2017, New Hyaenodonts (Ferae, Mammalia) From The Early Miocene Of Napak (Uganda), Koru (Kenya) And Grillental (Namibia), Fossil Imprint 73 (3 - 4), pp. 332-359 : 336-337

Buhakia hyaenoides ( MORALES et al., 2003)

Text-fig. 2

2003 Africanictis hyaenoides ; Morales et al., p. 183.

H o l o t y p e. Left m2 (GSN AD 241’99) ( Text-fig. 2 ).

T y p e l o c a l i t y. Arrisdrift, Namibia.

A g e. Basal Middle Miocene.

D i s c u s s i o n. Morales et al.(2003) defined Africanictis hyaenoides at the locality of Arrisdrift ( Namibia) on the basis of a suspected m1 with specialised features (loss of the metaconid, narrow, cutting trigonid and reduced talonid, although it possesses a hypoconid and entoconid) thereby differing from the type species of the genus, Africanictis meini ( Morales et al. 1998b) . Among the carnivores described by Morlo et al. (2007) from Wadi Moghra, Egypt, there was a new creodont, Buhakia moghraensis , based on a subadult mandible of which the dentition was interpreted to be dp4, m1 and m2. In particular, the last molar in this specimen is morphologically quite close to the Arrisdrift species, which is only slightly larger ( Text-fig. 3 ). The Arrisdrift molar is unworn, and has open roots, indicting its subadult status, similar in age to the individual of B. moghraensis . The Arrisdrift molar has a basal cingulum on the buccal side of the paraconid which sweeps upwards along the anterior margin and swells such that occlusion with the talonid of the preceding molar (m1) is via this cingulum and the anteriormost extremity of the paraconid, a conformation visible in Buhakia moghraensis and frequent in hyaenodonts in which the molars are imbricated. Other characters common to the two species are the loss of the metaconid and the presence of cutting talonid and hypoconid.

Figures

Text-fig. 2. Buhakia hyaenoides (MORALES et al., 2003) from Arrisdrift, Sperrgebiet (Namibia). GSN AD 241’99 (holotype), left m2. a: lingual view, b: buccal view, c: occlusal view (stereo pairs).

Text-fig. 3. Bivariate plots of the lower teeth (m3 – m2) of small to medium sized Miocene hyaenodonts from African localities. Data source: Pilgrim (1912, 1932), Colbert (1935), Savage (1965), Barry (1988), Morales et al. (1998a, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010), Holroyd (1999), Morlo et al. (2007), Rasmussen et al. (2009), Borths et al. (2016), Borths and Seiffert (2017).