Two Miocene Hipparion species identified from Shihuiba locality of Lufeng, Yunnan, China
The Shihuiba locality (Lufengpithecus site) at Lufeng, Yunnan is one of the most important Miocene mammal fauna sites in China. The Hipparion (three-toed horse) fossils collected from this locality from 1975 to 1983 were identified as Hipparion sp. 1 and Hipparion sp. 2. Recently, SUN Boyang, a graduate student paleontologist of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, re-examined these specimens and found they represent two species, Hipparion theobaldi (Lydekker, 1877) and Hipparion (Hipparion) lufengense sp. nov. The study published in the latest issue of Vertebrata PalAsiatica 2013(2) indicated that both species immigrated from the Siwaliks to Yunnan when climate and environment changed, providing new data for studies on paleobiogeography.