EOCENE PERISSODACTYLA FROM THE SHINZHALY RIVER, EASTERN KAZAKSTAN

A fossil mammal locality on the eastern bank of the Shinzhaly River, e astern Kazakhstan, is a bone bad in the Kolpak Formation that has prod uced three taxa of ceratomorph perissodactyls, the hyracodontid Forste rcooperia minuta Lucas, Schoch, and Manning, the deperetellid Teleolop hus beliajevae Biryukov (which we consider to be a junior subjective s ynonym of T. medius Matthew and Granger and the lophialetid Eoletes gr acilis Biryukov. Eoletes is dentally indistinguishable from Lophialete s, but cranial features, especially the shallow nasal incision (only t o above the upper canine) and large supraorbital bar of Eoletes, allow the two genera to be distinguished. Simplaletes Qi is a junior subjec tive synonym of Schlosseria Matthew and Granger, and we reassign Simpl aletes xianensis Zhang and Qi, from the middle Eocene? of Shaanxi, Chi na to Eoletes as E. xianensis. A re-evaluation of some character state s used in a previous cladistic analysis suggests that Eoletes, Lophial etes, and Schlosseria form an unresolved trichtomy, so we recommend ab andonment of the term Eoletidae Schoch. Because Eoletes and Lophialete s are impossible to distinguish solely on the basis of teeth, Eoletes may be represented by some Mongolian and Chinese dentitions referred c ustomarily to Lophialetes but that lack associated diagnostic cranial material. This possibility, and the presence of F. minuta and T. mediu s at Shinzhaly, support the middle Eocene (Irdinmanhan) age of the Kol pak Formation bone bed.