Title
The First Record of a Miocene Terrestrial Mammal (Astrapotheria: Uruguaytheriinae) from Northern Coastal Peru
Date Issued
01 May 2020
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Universidad Nacional de Piura
Publisher(s)
Asociacion Paleontologica Argentina
Abstract
Astrapotheres were a clade of unusual early to middle Cenozoic herbivorous mammals endemic to South America. Neogene astrapotheres were large, tusked mammals that probably had a short proboscis and may have preferred mesic lowland habitats; they were widespread during the early Miocene, became restricted to the tropics during the middle Miocene, and apparently did not persist into the late Miocene. The geologically youngest astrapotheres pertain to the subfamily Uruguaytheriinae, and in this report, we describe a partial uruguaytheriine astrapothere cranium with well-preserved postcanine dentition that we identify as Granastrapotherium cf. snorki. This specimen was collected from fluviolacustrine strata in the Tumbes Region of extreme northwestern Peru that likely pertain to the Zorritos Formation. At present, the temporal range of Granastrapotherium snorki is restricted to the late middle Miocene (Serravallian Age; ca. 13.6-12.8 Ma), which suggests a similar age for the fossil-bearing sediments of the upper Zorritos Formation. The fossil locality, which is ca. 25 km southwest of the city of Tumbes, is ca. 1,000 km distant from other sites in Peru and Colombia where G. snorki has been recorded and extends the geographic range of the species westward more than 550 km. We estimate the body mass of G. snorki at 1,800-2,500 kg based on head-body length of 3.75 m; this is lower than dentition-based body mass estimates but still suggests G. snorki was the largest terrestrial mammal in South America at the time.
Start page
146
End page
158
Volume
57
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Paleontología
Ciencia animal, Ciencia de productos lácteos
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85085496849
Source
Ameghiniana
ISSN of the container
00027014
Sponsor(s)
The authors wish to thank the members of the village of Higueron who discovered the specimen described in this paper and took the initiative to bring it to the Educational Institution “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.” Additionally, we are grateful to director of this institution, Damián Fajardo Balladares, and his staff of teachers, who made the arrangements necessary to have SALV1 safely stored in the facilities of the Dirección Desconcentrada de Cultura de Tumbes (DDC-Tumbes). This report would not have been possible without the assistance of R.R. Cabanillas Calderón, archaeologist at the DDC-Tumbes, and C.M. Lazo Ramírez, former director of this institution, who allowed us to study SALV1 and facilitated access to the site where it was discovered. We also thank in advance the archaeologist and new director of the DDC-Tumbes, R.M. Diaz Montalvo, for his good disposition and well-known interest in cooperating in future paleontological investigations in this region.We thank P. Holroyd (UCMP), A. Kramarz (MACN), M. Reguero (MLP), B. Simpson (FMNH), and personnel of the Servicio Geológico Colombiano for facilitating access to comparative specimens in their care. J. Carrillo and an anonymous reviewer provided valuable critical reviews that improved the final version of this manuscript, and D. Pol facilitated its publication by serving as editor. This research was supported by our home institutions, the organizing committee of the V Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología de Vertebrados (August 20-25, 2018, Villa de Leyva, Colombia), and the National Science Foundation (EAR 1423058to DAC).
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Instituto Nacional de Investigación en Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montaña
Scopus