Kunmunella
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| Kunmunella Temporal range: Ypresian, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | †Raoellidae |
| Genus: | †Kunmunella Sahni and Khare, 1971 |
| Type species | |
| †Indohyus kalakotensis Ranga Rao, 1971 | |
| Species | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
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K. kalakotensis synonymy
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Kunmunella is an extinct raoellid artiodactyl which inhabited what is now northern India during the middle-upper Eocene (Ypresian).[1] There are two species of Kunmunella: K. kalakotensis and K. transversa. The former species was named after the town of Kalakote within Jammu and Kashmir, the place from which it was found, while the latter species was named after the transverse nature of the upper teeth.[2] K. kalakotensis is known from a palate with its respective teeth, a left maxillary ramus, a left mandible, two poorly preserved maxillas, and two isolated molars.[2] K. transversa is known from only a right maxilla.[2]
The remains of Kunmunella were first found by Ranga Rao, 1971. He found only a left mandible, and assigned it to a new species of Indohyus, I. kalakotensis, after the region in which he discovered the animal.[2] In the following year, an isolated upper third molar would be found by Sahni and Khare, which would be assigned to the new genus Kunmunella.[1] This new taxon would be named K. rajouriensis, named after the Rajouri district where the fossil was found.[1] In 1985, a right maxilla with its respective teeth was found and assigned to the new species K. transversa.[2]
Classification
External Classification
The first remains of Kunmunella discovered were first assigned to Indohyus.[2] When Kunmunella was first named, it was assigned to Helohyidae, which was at that time within Dichobunidae, due to the morphology of its molar, which was at the time the only remains classified under the genus Kunmunella.[1] In 1977, Kunmunella was moved from Dichobunidae to Helohyidae. In the same year, Helohyidae was moved from Dichobunoidea to Anthracotherioidea (now Ancodonta) and by extension Kunmunella was moved to Anthracotherioidea.[3][4] In 1981, Kunmunella, along with Raoella (now Indohyus) and Khirtharia, were found to all share various synapomorphies and were grouped together in the new family Raoellidae.[4] However, Thewissen et al. (1987) determined that Kunmunella, along with Raoella, were synonymous with Indohyus.[5] This change was reverted by Thewissen, Williams & Hussain (2001), who found Kunmunella to be a valid genus.[6] In 2011, Orliac and Ducrocq through a phylogenetic analysis determined Kunmunella to be the most basal raoellid.[6] In 2020, a study found that Kunmunella was a junior synonym of Indohyus, although this result was not widely reconginzed.[7] After the discovery of Rajouria in 2021, Rana et al., through a phylogenetic analysis, determined that the newly found Rajouria was the most basal member of Raoellidae, with Kunmunella being the second most basal.[8]
Internal Classification
The first species of Kunmunella to be named was K. rajouriensis, although the first remains of what is now known to be Kunmunella were found earlier and assigned to I. kalakotensis.[1][2] In 1985, Kumar and Sahni found that I. kalakotensis was a synonym of K. rajouriensis and that Kunmunella was a distinct species. Since older names have precedent in taxonomy, they changed the name of K. rajouriensis to K. kalakotensis.[2] The same study found that there was another species of Kunmunela, known only from a right maxilla: K. transversa.[2] Rana et al. (2021) reaffirmed that the two species of Kunmunella were most closely related to each other than to any other animal, and therefore formed a valid genus.[8]