A 'large and valuable' Siwalik fossil collection in the archives of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History

This article describes results from a review of South Asian fossils in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. These materials include two early 19th century collections of fossils from the Siwalik Hills in India. While this assemblage was summarised in 1837 by William Buckland as ‘large and valuable collections of fossil bones’, it has remained largely unstudied and unpublished in any detail since collection. Here, as a precursor to a comprehensive re-evaluation, we establish a chronological and geographical context of one collection event, provide details of its donor, and outline its history after arrival in Oxford. We then describe select taxa in the collection, including a well-preserved maxilla and toothrow of the large extinct giraffid, Sivatherium giganteum, as a basis to justify our current understanding of the biostratigraphic affinity of the assemblage. Conservatively, the collection is a ‘classic’ Upper Siwalik Plio-Pleistocene fauna, possibly the first to be transported to the UK. While further analyses will realise the scientific potential of the fossils, the narrative of their journey from India to Oxford remains incomplete. Further investigation of the hidden history of the collection is warranted

Dragon bones from the heavens: European explorations and early palaeontology in Zanda Basin of Tibet, retracing type locality of Qurliqnoria hundesiensis and Hipparion (Plesiohipparion) zandaense

More than 200 years since its initial exploration, Zanda Basin, a high-elevation (3,800–4,500 m above sea), intermountain basin at the foothills of the Himalaya, is the site to some of the earliest fossil discoveries, including the holotype of extinct Tibetan antelope, Qurliqnoria hundesiensis. These fossils also hold the record, in 1823, as the first vertebrate fossils from Tibet in the scientific literature. Unfortunately, these tantalising early records have become all but forgotten for more than 100 years due to a lack of information about their localities. Our recent explorations in the 2000s revive the interests in Zanda Basin and establish a unique Zanda mammal assemblage important in the evolution of Tibetan Neogene mammals. In this paper, we retrace the expedition routes by early explorers and attempt to establish, to the extent possible, the type locality of two key mammals in the Zanda fauna: Q. hundesiensis and Hipparion (Plesiohipparion) zandaense. We highlight the pivotal role Zanda fossil mammals play in the early discourse of mountain building, climate change, and mammal adaptation in high Himalaya, more than a hundred years before Chinese palaeontologists made a similar argument upon the discovery of three-toed horses, in the 1980s, at different basins in Tibet

Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in India: how much do we know?

Understanding global patterns of late Quaternary megafaunal extinction is impeded by geographic variation in data quality and quantity. The magnitude, timing and drivers of megafaunal extinctions remain poorly understood for India, a region with a strong history of palaeontological research. We review available data for all putative extinct Indian megafaunal taxa with direct or indirect reported evidence of potential survival into the global “megafaunal extinction window” (from ∼50,000 years onwards). Assessment of late Quaternary megafaunal species richness is confused by multiple levels of taxonomic uncertainty, including the relationship of named Late Pleistocene taxa to extant taxa, and nomenclatural confusion over correct species names. There is sufficient evidence to recognise up to four genuine global megafaunal species-level extinctions in India during the Late Pleistocene: two proboscideans (Palaeoloxodon namadicus, Stegodon sp.), a hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon sp.), and possibly a horse (Equus namadicus). A fifth extinct megafaunal species, the Indian aurochs Bos [primigenius] namadicus, definitely persisted into the Holocene. Other Indian late Quaternary megafaunal species (Rhinoceros spp., Bubalus palaeindicus, Sus “palaeindicus”, Crocodylus palaeindicus) are likely to be synonyms of extant species. Reconstructing regional extinction dynamics is further impeded by chronological uncertainty; however, attempts to obtain new dates for vertebrate samples from six late Quaternary sites in five regions were unsuccessful. Accurate understanding of the dynamics of megafaunal extinctions in India will require robust taxonomic, chronological and palaeoecological data, and we encourage further investigation of the region’s rich late Quaternary record

A ‘large and valuable’ Siwalik fossil collection in the archives of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History

This article describes results from a review of South Asian fossils in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. These materials include two early 19th century collections of fossils from the Siwalik Hills in India. While this assemblage was summarised in 1837 by William Buckland as ‘large and valuable collections of fossil bones’, it has remained largely unstudied and unpublished in any detail since collection. Here, as a precursor to a comprehensive re-evaluation, we establish a chronological and geographical context of one collection event, provide details of its donor, and outline its history after arrival in Oxford. We then describe select taxa in the collection, including a well-preserved maxilla and toothrow of the large extinct giraffid, Sivatherium giganteum, as a basis to justify our current understanding of the biostratigraphic affinity of the assemblage. Conservatively, the collection is a ‘classic’ Upper Siwalik Plio-Pleistocene fauna, possibly the first to be transported to the UK. While further analyses will realise the scientific potential of the fossils, the narrative of their journey from India to Oxford remains incomplete. Further investigation of the hidden history of the collection is warranted