Chaungtha, a new Middle Miocene mammal locality from the Irrawaddy Formation, Myanmar

We describe here a mammalian assemblage originating from the locality of Chaungtha (Irrawaddy Formation, Myanmar). It represents one of the rare descriptions of a precisely located, in space, vertical section and time, fossil mammal fauna from the Irrawaddy Formation. Classically the fossil record of Irrawaddy Formation is essentially known from isolated fossils of imprecise or unknown provenance, especially concerning the stratigraphic position of the fossils along several hundred meter thick sections. The Chaungtha faunal association consists of the rhino Brachypotherium fatehjangense, the pig Conohyus thailandicus, the ruminants cf. Siamotragulus sanyathanai, cf. Siamotragulus sp. and a gomphotheriid proboscidean. This assemblage indicates that the locality is Miocene in age, and not Late Eocene as previously claimed, and roughly contemporaneous with the Chinji Formation of India-Pakistan (ca. 14-11 Ma) and with the Mae Moh Group of northern Thailand. The Chaungtha fauna, even if it displays regional characteristics, shows a strong resemblance to those of the Middle Miocene of India-Pakistan and of Thailand and reinforces the idea that South-East Asia and Pakistan were part of the same biogeographical province during the Middle Miocene.