8. A Dormouse (Gliridae, Rodentia) from Yushe Basin

This work documents the first dormouse known as a component of the Pliocene small mammal assemblages of Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province. It is the youngest dormouse in the Chinese fossil record. Due to their small body size and tiny teeth, dormice are generally underrepresented in fossil assemblages, and were previously unknown in Yushe Basin. The technique of screen-washing allowed the Sino-American field team to recover a single specimen in 1988. It represents a species of dormouse that may be identical with the taxon recorded to the north at the older sites of Ertemte and Bilike in Inner Mongolia. It is currently unknown whether more than one lineage of dormouse characterized the paleocommunities of Shanxi Province, and whether they were present throughout the Miocene of China. The occurrence of this group is consistent with a stable ecology promoting high rodent diversity during the Pliocene of Yushe Basin. Dormice are not yet known from Pleistocene deposits of North China, and in China today, the only known representatives are Dryomys in Xinjiang and Chaetocauda in Sichuan Province.