Naranius cf. infrequens Ting, 1995 , 1998

Ting, Suyin, Wang, Xiaoming & Meng, Jin, 2023, Cranial And Postcranial Morphology Of The Insectivoran-Grade Mammals Hsiangolestes And Naranius (Mammalia, Eutheria) With Analyses Of Their Phylogenetic Relationships, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2023 (463), pp. 1-129 : 75

Naranius cf. infrequens Ting, 1995, 1998 .

TYPE SPECIMEN: IVPP V 7439, a complete skull with associated mandibles, with a small piece of enamel of right I, partial left and right I2, left and right I3, left and right C–M3, fragmentary left i1, partial i2, left i3, left c–m2, right c, right p1–2, and right p4–m3 (field number, 82002).

REFERRED SPECIMENS: IVPP V 5352, nearly complete skull with associated mandibles, with partial left C, left P1–M3, left c, and left and right p4–m3; IVPP V 5353, most of skull with associated mandibles, with very fragmentary left M1–3, right P4, right M2–3, fragmentary left p4–m2, and right p4–m3 (field number: 76003); IVPP V 7440 (? Insectivora gen et sp. nov. of Ting, 1995), anterior half of skull with associated mandibles, with left I3, right I1–3, left and right C, left and right P2–M3, and left and right i1–m3 (field number: 82001).

DISTRIBUTION AND AGE: Early Eocene (Bumbanian Asian Land Mammal Age), Lingcha Formation, Hengyang Basin, Hunan Province, China.

ETYMOLOGY: Species named for the Hengdong County, Hengyang Basin, Hunan Province, China, where the fossils were collected.

DIAGNOSIS: Naranius hengdongensis differs from the type species, N. infrequens , in having longer diastema posterior to p1 (char. 52), p4 without cingulid (char. 69), metacrista prominent instead of salient (extending from side of metacone to metastyle) (char. 87), preprotocrista extending labially past base of paracone (char. 89), only one mental foramen (char. 131), coronoid process vertically situated (char. 135), and with large infraorbital canal (char. 160).