NEW CARNIVORES FROM THE BASAL MIDDLE MIOCENE OF ARRISDRIFT, NAMIBIA

The early Middle Miocene locality at Arrisdrift, Namibia, has yielded seven species of carnivores, comprising a giant creodont, two amphicyo nids, a mustelid, a stenoplesictid and two felids. The mustelid, steno plesictid and felids belong to new genera and one of the amphicyonids is a new species, while the other forms are similar to species already known from East Africa and Europe. Comparisons of the Namibian fossil s with those from other parts of Africa and Europe suggest that Arrisd rift correlates with Faunal Set P IIIa of East Africa (Pickford 1981) and the early part of MN04 of the European mammal zonation (ca 17-17.5 Ma) (Mein 1990).