ABSTRACT
A new species of Caprini is described from the early Pliocene (Blancan NALMA) Meadow Valley deposits of Panaca, Nevada, USA, and probably represents the earliest caprine known from North America. The Meadow Valley fauna of the Panaca Formation existed between 4.95 and 4.50 Ma ago. Comparative data indicate that Sinocapra willdownsi sp. nov. most closely resembles the extinct caprine Sinocapra minor, known only from the Yushe Basin, China. The Mazegou Formation locality, from which S. minor was collected, was deposited about 3.5 Ma ago. Morphological analysis also indicates that Sinocapra is more closely allied to sheep than to goats. Basal caprine ancestors were present in Europe during the late Miocene, but the earliest sheep, Ovis, appears in China approximately 2.42 Ma ago. The earlier presence of the sheep-like Sinocapra in North America is problematic and may indicate an early migration from China. However, it may also indicate that Sinocapra evolved in North America from an ancestor that migrated from China even earlier, and later dispersed back to Asia. We postulate that Sinocapra migrated to North America from northeastern China during the latest Miocene or earliest Pliocene (late late Hemphillian NALMA).
Jim I. Mead. Department of Geology and the Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, and Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86001, USA
Louis H. Taylor. Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado, 80001, USA
KEY WORDS: Sinocapra, Bovidae, Caprinae, Pliocene, North America
PE Article Number: 8.1.11
Copyright: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology May 2005
Submission: 18 February 2004. Acceptance: 6 April 2005
