Chapter 23

Abstract

Abstract Thirty-five years ago Dick Tedford and Len Radinsky collected the remains of three individuals of a new gerbil in the hill country of Afghanistan. Tedford's gerbil is a new, large species of a widespread late Neogene genus, Abudhabia. The material is extraordinarily complete, including three crania and many of the postcrania. The extinct taxon is clearly a gerbil based on dental and cranial features, while it has a relatively underived basicranium. The long hind limb proportions appear strongly derived. The bulla is enlarged and the mastoid is little inflated, not as inflated as in many gerbils. The fossil form is a primitive taterilline and suggests homoplasy in ear structure and dentition among modern taxa.