Title
Late Oligocene caviomorph rodents from Contamana, Peruvian Amazonia
Date Issued
01 February 2017
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Boivin M.
Marivaux L.
Candela A.M.
Orliac M.J.
Pujos F.
Antoine P.O.
Publisher(s)
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
The Deseadan South American Land Mammal Age (late Early Oligocene – Late Oligocene) attests to a time of great diversification in the caviomorph rodent fossil record. Nevertheless, Deseadan rodent-bearing localities in Neotropical lowlands are few and poorly known. Here we describe the rodent assemblages from two Late Oligocene localities, near Contamana, Loreto, Peru. Seven taxa are new to science: Palaeosteiromys amazonensis gen. et sp. nov., Plesiosteiromys newelli gen. et sp. nov., Loretomys minutus gen. et sp. nov., Scleromys praecursor sp. nov, Ucayalimys crassidens gen. et sp. nov., Chambiramys sylvaticus gen. et sp. nov. and Chambiramys shipiborum gen. et sp. nov. These rodent faunas show that caviomorphs were relatively diverse in Peruvian Amazonia during the Late Oligocene, with the co-occurrence of at least three extant superfamilies: Erethizontoidea, Octodontoidea and Chinchilloidea. Additionally, they mark the earliest known occurrences of Scleromys, of a small erethizontid closely related to Microsteiromys and of an adelphomyine closely reminiscent of Ricardomys (all taxa previously restricted to Miocene localities thus far). They also document a form potentially related to Eosallamys (previously known from around the Eocene–Oligocene transition at Santa Rosa in Peruvian Amazonia). Finally, the geographical range of Adelphomyinae and of Deseadomys is widely expanded to the lower latitudes of South America for the Deseadan interval. The latter elements, in addition to the record of a very primitive species of Scleromys, suggest the absence of palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental barriers within the southern cone of South America before the Oligocene–Miocene transition.
Start page
69
End page
109
Volume
3
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Paleontología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85003582745
Source
Papers in Palaeontology
ISSN of the container
20562802
Sponsor(s)
We especially thank the Canaan Shipibo Native Community and Maple Gas Peru S.A. for granting access to the field, and to the IRD-PeruPetro Convention Programme for logistical support. We are particularly grateful to our guides Manuel and Manuel, for their long standing help in the forest during the field seasons. Many thanks to Sylvain Adnet (ISEM, Montpellier, France), Ali J. Altamirano-Sierra (MUSM, Lima, Peru), Guillaume Billet (MNHN, Paris, France), and all those who helped us in the field and in the lab. We are much indebted to Mar?a E. P?rez (MPEF, Trelew, Argentina), Mar?a G. Vucetich (MLP, La Plata, Argentina), and Alejandro G. Kramarz (MACN, Buenos Aires, Argentina) for discussions on rodent affinities and for providing us with crucial references. Christine Argot (MNHN, Paris, France), Alejandro G. Kramarz and Marcelo Reguero (MLP, La Plata, Argentina) kindly granted access to the collections under their care. We gratefully thank Mar?a G. Vucetich, who kindly provided casts of fossil rodents from Argentinean Patagonia. We warmly thank Chantal Cazevieille (Montpellier RIO Imaging, Institut des Neurosciences de Montpellier, France) and Didier Cot (Institut Europ?en des Membranes (IEM), Montpellier, France) for access to a scanning electron microscope facility. We also thank Hannah O'Regan (Editor), Andrew Smith (Editor in Chief) and Sally Thomas (Palaeontological Association) as well as Ana-Maria Ribeiro (Funda??o Zoobot?nica (FZB), Porto Alegre, Brazil) and Alejandro Kramarz, who provided formal reviews of this manuscript that enhanced the final version. This work was supported by CNRS ?Eclipse 2?, CNRS ?Paleo2?, Toulouse University ?SPAM? programs, by the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the ANR PALASIAFRICA (ANR-08-JCJC-0017, ANR-ERC), by the National Geographic Society, an ?Investissements d'Avenir? grant managed by the ?Agence Nationale de la Recherche? (CEBA, ANR-10-LABX-0025-01), and by the CoopIntEER CNRS/CONICET and the ECOS-SUD/FONCyT international collaboration programs. This is ISEM publication 2016-187-Sud.
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