New Small Mammals From the Hasnot-Tatrot Area of the Potwar Plateau, Northern Pakistan

Abstract

New rodent and lagomorph fossils from the Hasnot-Tatrot area of northern Pakistan are presented here to complement knowledge of stratigraphic ranges and morphology of key late Neogene Siwalik taxa. Most of the material is from two sites near the village of Bhandar in strata of the late Miocene age Dhok Pathan Formation; one specimen comes from the Pliocene Tatrot beds. We apply previously established magnetostratigraphy to date the fossils, the Bhandar sites dating to 6.6 to 6.7 Ma. In describing the fossils, we emphasize new morphological information represented by the material. As surface finds, these fossils represent relatively large body size species, three bamboo rat relatives, a porcupine, and a rabbit. The bamboo rats (Rhizomyinae) are an endemic group, and both the porcupine (Hystrix) and the rabbit (Alilepus) represent late Miocene immigrants into the Indian subcontinent.