Listriodon dukkar sp. nov. (Suidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the late Miocene of Pasuda (Gujarat, India): the decline and extinction of the Listriodontinae

Abstract

The Listriodontinae were a common and widespread group of Suidae (pigs) that lived in an area extending from Portugal to China and to southern Africa. Here, we describe the new species Listriodon dukkar from Pasuda (Gujarat, India). It shares features with Li. pentapotamiae, evolved from it, and is the last representative of this lineage. The Listriodontinae flourished for about 10 million years, reached their maximum diversity and geographic extension during the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (about 17–13.6 Ma), and their last records are close in age and date to ~ 9.8 Ma in the Indian Subcontinent, 9.78 Ma in Europe, and ~ 10 Ma in Africa. We review the environments in which the last listriodont lineages lived and went extinct. Their extinctions occurred against a background of increasing seasonality, vegetation change, a rise in bovid diversity and abundance, and local events, such as the European Vallesian Crisis and a dramatic drop in tragulid abundance in the Siwaliks. However, changes in the atmospheric pCO2 may have contributed to their decline and extinction in all their geographic distribution. Decreasing pCO2 is expected to have decreased sugar content and increased protein content of leaves and fruit. Hindgut fermenting Suoidea have higher protein requirements, while foregut fermenting Suoidea are more efficient in digesting sugars. Listriodontinae were probably foregut fermenters and were less well adapted in a low pCO2 world.