Class Mammalia Order Rodentia Family Muridae 1
PLIOLEMMUS ANTIQUUS HIBBARD, 1937
IDENTIFICATION This species is readily identifiable; it is one of the few North American arvicolines that has rootless molars that lack cement in the reentrant angles. The ml consists of a posterior loop and usually seven alternating, closed triangles, with a somewhat variable, but always relatively simplistic, anterior cap. Dentine tracts usually break the occlusal enamel surface on all salient angles in advanced stages of wear (Hibbard, 1938, 1956, 1972). The ml of Guildayomys hibbardi is also rootless and lacks cement, but the posterior triangles are usually slightly confluent, and the sixth and seventh triangles are broadly confluent with each other and with the anterior cap (Zakrzewski, 1984).
distribution within porcupine cave Only three specimens of Pliolemmus antiquus were recovered from Porcupine Cave, all from DMNH 1349, Mark's Sink.
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