FIND OF EARLY PLIOCENE FOSSILS OF HORSES (<i>HIPPARION TCHICOICUM</i> IVANJEV, 1966) IN THE WESTERN TRANSBAIKALIE
The report is about a discovery of fossils of Pliocene tridactyl horse (Hipparion tchicoicum) in Western Transbaikalia. The age of the mammalian fauna from the red-brown clay at the Udunga locality indicates that the Chikoian hipparion lived in the south of Eastern Siberia and in the second half of the Early Pliocene, where its remains were known only from the red-colored deposits of the Upper Pliocene. This find made it possible to fill the existing hiatus (Early Pliocene) in its stratigraphic distribution: Late Miocene – Late Pliocene. The range of this species of the tridactyl horse, which did not go beyond the borders of Northern China, Northern Mongolia, and the south of Eastern Siberia, suggests that its evolution took place within Inner Asia.