Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
Abstract
Main articleArrisdrift, an early Middle Miocene site in the Proto-Orange river deposits of Namibia, was
excavated in the mid 1970s by Corvinus and since 1993 by the Namibia Palaeontology Expedition.
These excavations resulted in the discovery of several postcranial elements of springhares. Generally,
these appear to have been smaller than those of modem Pedetes capensis or P. surdaster, but more
robust that those of the extant taxa. The Arrisdrift pedetid was larger than the lower Miocene
Namibian species, Parapedetes namaquensis; must smaller and less robust than the lower Miocene
East African species, Megapedetes pentadactylus; but larger than Pedetes laeroliensis from the
Pliocene site of Laetoli (Tanzani a). The limb proportions, morphology of the proximal femur, distal
tibia, astragalus and the calcaneum suggest that the pedetid from Arrisdrift was saltatorial, but to a
lesser degree than modern springhares. lt exhibits features probably related to locomotor behaviour
which are different from Parapedetes, Megapedetes and Pedetes suggest that they may represent a
different genus in accordance with results of research on the cranio-dental remains (Me in & Senut,
in prep.)College de France
(Prof. Y. Coppens), Museum national d ' Histoire naturelle (Prof.
Ph. Taquet) and GDR 983 CNR