New species from the Pliocene of Tibet reveals origin of ice age mountain sheep

Paleontologists reports a new genus and species of fossil sheep from the Pliocene of Zanda Basin in Tibet. This finding extends the fossil record for the sheep into the Pliocene of the Tibetan Plateau, suggesting that the Tibetan Plateau, possibly including Tianshan-Altai, represents the ancestral home range(s) of mountain sheep and that these basal stocks were the ultimate source of all extant species, which is consistent with the out-of-Tibet hypothesis regarding the origins of ice age megaherbivores.
Paleontology News — ScienceDaily