Suidos fósiles del Sistema paleokárstico de Bolt's Farm, Sudáfrica: implicaciones para la taxonomía y biocronología de <em>Potamochoeroides</em> y los <em>Notochoerus</em>

M. Pickford; D. Gommery

doi:10.3989/egeol.43542.536

Authors

M. Pickford CR2P/UMR 7207, MNHN-CNRS-SU, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9017-1107
D. Gommery CR2P/UMR 7207, CNRS-MNHN-SU, Sorbonne Université - Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg - HRU, Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6288-1937

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/egeol.43542.536

Keywords:

South Africa, Suidae, Taxonomy, Comparative anatomy, Plio-Pleistocene

Abstract

Recent excavations at Aves Cave I (AC), Brad Pit ‘A’ (BPA), Milo ‘A’ (MA), Bridge Cave (BC) and Alcelaphine Cave (AL), in the Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, South Africa, have yielded fossil suid remains which provide biostratigraphic information about the periods of deposition in the Bolt’s Farm Palaeokarst System. At Aves Cave I there are Late Pliocene deposits which have yielded the extinct suid Potamochoeroides hypsodon, including skeletal elements that were poorly represented in previous collections from Bolt’s Farm as well as rare remains of Notochoerus capensis. At Brad Pit ‘A’ remains of Gerontochoerus koobiforaensis occur. Milo ‘A’ and other deposits have yielded remains of the suid Metridiochoerus andrewsi that indicate a later phase of endokarst sedimentation (Early Pleistocene). The Panthera Spot at Bridge Cave has yielded articulated foot bones of a suid, provisionally identified as Phacochoerus modestus and which suggest an Early Pleistocene age for this infilling. The augmented samples of suids from Bolt’s Farm invite detailed comparisons with the Suidae from Makapansgat which permits a review of the taxonomy of Notochoerus and Potamochoeroides. It is shown that both genera are Suinae, and could be synonyms. Comparisons are also made with Plio-Pleistocene suids from Malawi and Namibia.

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References

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