TITLE:
A New Species of Fossil Mus (Muridae, Mammalia) from the Late Quaternary Deposits of Narmada Valley, Central India
AUTHORS:
Bahadur Singh Kotlia, Moulishree Joshi, Lalit Mohan Joshi
KEYWORDS:
Fossil Mus, Late Quaternary, Narmada basin, Central India
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Geology,
Vol.1 No.3,
October
24,
2011
ABSTRACT: A new species of fossil Mus (Muridae, Rodentia) is described from the Pleistocene fluviatile deposits of the Narmada valley (Central India). The species, Mus narmadaensis sp. Nov., has a comparatively smaller lower molar which is characterized by a narrow molar with well connected cusps, small anterior expansion of lingual anteroconid, protoconid and metaconid, reduced posterior cingulum in addition to hypoconid and entoconid nearly at the same level. The large M3 has centrally placed bulbous hypoconid. Among the extant species, the present one is closest to M. shortridgei in having similarly placed protoconid and metaconid in M1 and a well developed hypoconid in M3.