Pliopentalagus GUREEV et KONKOVA

Genus Pliopentalagus GUREEV et KONKOVA in GUREEV, 1964

S y n o n y m. Aztlanolagus RUSSELL et HARRIS, 1986 .

Ty p e s p e c i e s. Pliopentalagus moldaviensis GUREEV et KONKOVA in GUREEV, 1964.

O r i g i n a l d i a g n o s i s. See Gureev (1964: 129).

E m e n d e d d i a g n o s i s. (Emended after Tomida and Jin 2009.) Body size small to medium; diastema of lower jaw short; lower incisor terminates more anteriorly than Hypolagus ; enamel crenulations of reentrants on cheek teeth complicated; p3 possesses all five reentrants (counting enamel lake as a modification of PIR); posterior walls of PER and PIR (or enamel lake) thin and well crenulated; PIR on p3 always isolated as an enamel lake in primitive species, and ratio of the presence of enamel lake decreases in advanced species; p4–m2 with anterior wall of talonid well and deeply crenulated but not as deep as in Pentalagus , and with small AER in majority of the population in primitive species; length of palatal bridge relatively long in primitive species and becomes shorter in one lineage and longer in another lineage; P3–M2 with internal reentrant fold deep and enamel crenulations of both anterior and posterior walls deep and heavy but less than in Pentalagus .

I n c l u d e d s p e c i e s. P. huainanensis JIN, 2004 , late Late Miocene, China (Anhui Province); P. dajushanensis TOMIDA etJIN, 2009, Early Pliocene, China (Anhui Province); P. anhuiensis TOMIDA et JIN, 2009 , Late Pliocene, China (Anhui Province); P. dietrichi ( FEJFAR, 1961; originally described as the genus Alilepus ), late Early Pliocene (MN 15), Europe; Pliopentalagus okuyamai TOMIDA et TAKAHASHI, 2023 , ca. 3.5 Ma (middle Pliocene), Japan; P. progressivus LIU et ZHENG, 1997 , Early Pleistocene, China (Henan Province); and P. agilis ( RUSSELL et HARRIS, 1986; originally described as the genus Aztlanolagus ), Pleistocene – Holocene (?), North America (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico).

O c c u r r e n c e. From the late Late Miocene to late Pliocene in Asia, Early Pliocene in Europe, and from the earliest to latest Pleistocene, Holocene? in North America.