Discovery of fossil teeth of Pliocene Ochotona in the Zanda basin, Ngari, Tibet, China

Recently Ochotona tooth fossils have been for the first time discovered in Pliocene fluvio-lacustrine sediments in the Zanda basin, Ngari, Tibet. Their basic features are described. In addition to the Ochotona tooth fossils, large quantities of sporopollen, Dicerorhininae, microfossils and plant fossils have been collected in the same horizon. On the basis of studies of the Ochotona fossils, combined with the regional geology and paleomagnetic and ESR dating data and sedimentological features of the strata where the rhinoceros fossils occur, the authors think that the evolution and migration of Ochotona in the Zanda basin were related to the climatic change from warm-humid to cold-humid and warm-dry during the Pliocene. The evolution and migration of rhinoceros were thoughtfully noted in the Zanda basin. It is evident that this discovery may help us understand the Pliocene organic evolution, climatic change and tectonic movement in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and provide new data for the study of the organic evolution, lake and river evolution, climatic change, paleogeographic and the paleoenvironment changes and stratigraphic division of the Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary.