Sharamynodon (Mammalia : Perissodactyla) from the Eocene of the Ily basin,Kazakstan and the antiquity of Asian amynodonts

The brontothere bone bed at Kyzyl Murun near Aktau Mountain in the Ily basi n of eastern Kazakstan is a 0.5-m-thick layer of green bentonitic mudstone in the Kyzylbulak Formation that yields numerous skeletons of the middle Eo cene (Irdinmanhan) brontothere Protitan. An incomplete skull, lower jaw and some fragmentary postcrania from this bed belong to an amynodontid rhinoce ros. This specimen can be assigned to Sharamynodon mongoliensis (Osborn) be cause it displays numerous diagnostic features of that taxon, including thr ee closely spaced incisors, a short nasal incision that extends back to the postcanine diastema, a deep and tall preorbital fossa, and a relatively sh ort preorbital portion of the skull. This is the first record of Sharamynod on from Kazakstan and the oldest Kazak amynodontid. Previous reports of thi s taxon indicate it had a broad geographic (China, Mongolia, Japan) and tem poral (Irdinmanhan-Ergilian, i.e., middle-latest Eocene) distribution in As ia. There is no evidence that any Asian amynodont record is older than Irdi nmanhan. Thus, we consider the record of "Andarakodon" from Andarak, Kyrgyz stan to be Irdinmanhan, not older. Indeed, "Andarakodon" is a junior subjec tive synonym of Sharamynodon.