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Birth of the modern world: the Tertiary |
1 Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of China (e-mail: zhangmiman{at}pa.ivpp.ac.cn)
2 Natural History Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning 530012, Guangxi, People's Republic of China
3 Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, People's Republic of China
Fossil cypriniforms are abundantly represented in China and its adjacent areas, with the described taxa approximating to a total of 80 genera and 100 species and subspecies. They are known mainly from the Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene deposits. The Oligocene and Quaternary materials are relatively rare. These fossil cypriniforms represent three of the five Recent families: the Catostomidae, Cobitidae and Cyprinidae. Comparison of the Eocene catostomids from mainland East Asia with those from western North America points to an obvious transpacific distributional pattern, whereas there is only one species in Asia and more than 70 species in North America at present. Fossil cobitids are comparatively rare. Cyprinids are the most diverse and widespread group among the three families. The Miocene and Pliocene taxa shared by east mainland Asia and the Japanese Islands indicate that the fishes from these areas must have belonged to the same ichthyofauna during the Neogene. At the same time, some of them are quite similar to those from Europe, which is indicative of a closer connection between the two areas than previously thought.
