The Mammal Fauna of the Early Eocene Blackheath Formation of Abbey Wood, London

ABSTRACT Forty-six species-group land mammal taxa are described from the newly named marine Blackheath Formation (early Ypresian, Eocene) of Abbey Wood, London, UK. Of these, nine are new: Ailuravus mitchelli, Sparnacomys georgei, Neomatronella gassoni, Apatemys prouti, Viverravus lawsoni, Miacis rundlei, Arctocyonides jefferyi, Diacodexis morrisi and Pliolophus barnesi. The genera Peradectes, Palaeosinopa, Plesiesthonyx, Pseudoparamys, Sparnacomys, Neomatronella, Macrocranion, Wyonycteris, Didelphodus, Apatemys, Palaeonictis, Prototomus, Viverravus, Uintacyon, Pachyaena and Phenacodus and the orders Tillodontia and Mesonychia are described for the first time from the UK. The tillodont Franchaius is synonymized with Plesiesthonyx and the valid species reduced to three; the rodent Paramys ageiensis is resurrected and transferred to Pseudoparamys; the bat Eppsinycteris is transferred from Emballonuridae to the new family Eppsinycterididae; the primate Cantius eppsi is shown to be more closely related to North American notharctids than to European cercamoniines; Coryphodon anthracoideus is re-synonymized with C. eocaenus, the identifications of which in North America are modified; cladistic analysis of early North American and European equoids demonstrates a distinct clade on each continent. Correlation of the Blackheath Formation uses European dinocyst and palynological zonations and short-ranged mammal species shared with the Bighorn Basin, USA. Ecological diversity analysis of the Abbey Wood mammal fauna shows that it inhabited a tropical-type forest environment. Taphonomy and stratigraphy suggest a local origin for the mammal assemblage. Selective similarities in the mammals between Abbey Wood and North America suggest that continental interchange via Greenland was climatically controlled half a million years after the Paleocene-Eocene boundary.