New Fossil Cyprinids from the Miocene of the Lunpola Basin, Northern Tibet, and their Implications

Abstract

The Series Barbini (subfamily Cyprininae sensu lato) is the most species-rich group within the family Cyprinidae, primarily confined to warm regions of southern Eurasia and Africa. The distribution patterns and evolutionary history of Chinese cyprinins have been effectively shaped by the Cenozoic uplift of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and the evolution of the Asian monsoon. Here, we describe two new fossil fishes from the early and middle Miocene of the Lunpola Basin in central Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China, preserving the ethmoid and the rear of the occipital regions of the neurocranium, infraorbitals, hyopalatine arch, abdominal vertebrae, and some dorsal-fin pterygiophores and unbranched fin rays. Through detailed morphological comparisons, these fossils show definite affinities to Cyprinidae according to the morphology of the neurocranium, vertebral column, and dorsal fin rays; and one of which is classified into the Series Barbini, while the other can only be assigned to the Cyprinidae family level. These findings reveal that the hinterland of the plateau of the early Neogene should have hosted cyprinin fishes of greater diversity than today. This also indicates a warm-temperate paleoclimate suitable for their survival during that period, consistent with the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatical conditions reconstructed from the contemporaneous mammalian fossil and palynological evidences.

Keywords

Cyprinidae / middle Miocene / Lunpola Basin / Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

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2026 Geological Society of China