EARLY MIOCENE SLOTHS (XENARTHRA, FOLIVORA) FROM THE RÍO SANTA CRUZ VALLEY (SOUTHERN PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA). AMEGHINO, 1887 REVISITED
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5710/PEAPA.06.08.2019.297Keywords:
Burdigalian, Santacrucian, Phyllophaga, Taxonomy, Holotype, AmeghinoAbstract
The first detailed geological and paleontological survey of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early–Middle Miocene; Burdigalian–early Langhian) along the Río Santa Cruz was carried out in 1887 by Carlos Ameghino, who recovered more than 2000 fossil remains. In that same year, his brother Florentino studied and reported these remains, recognizing 122 taxa, of which 110 were new species. Fourteen of these new species were of sloths (Xenarthra, Folivora). In this contribution we report and describe new fossil sloth remains recovered in recent expeditions (between 2013 and 2014) along the southern banks of the Río Santa Cruz. The new specimens were recovered from two localities: Barrancas Blancas and Segundas Barrancas Blancas. We review the taxonomic richness of fossil sloths, in comparison with other Santacrucian localities recently studied, e.g, from the Atlantic coast and from the Andean region. An analysis of the original taxa erected by Ameghino is also included. As several of the original fossils on which these taxa are based are no longer available, we explore the value of the new collection in helping resolve systematic issues, as well as considering the specimens that formed the basis for the species erected by Ameghino in 1887. Further, the degree to which W.B. Scott’s systematic decisions on the Santacrucian sloths, published in 1903 and 1904, should continue to be recognized is also assessed.
References
Ameghino, F. 1887. Enumeración sistemática de las especies de mamíferos fósiles coleccionados por Carlos Ameghino en los terrenos eocenos de Patagonia Austral y depositados en el Museo de La Plata. Boletín del Museo de La Plata 1–26.
Ameghino, F. 1889. Contribución al conocimiento de los mamíferos fósiles de la República Argentina. Actas de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias 6: 1–1027, Córdoba.
Ameghino, F. 1891a. Nuevos restos de mamíferos fósiles descubiertos por Carlos Ameghino en el Eoceno inferior de la Patagonia austral. Especies nuevas, adiciones y correcciones. Revista Argentina de Historia Natural 1: 289–328.
Ameghino, F. 1891b. Caracteres diagnósticos de cincuenta especies nuevas de mamíferos fósiles argentinos. Revista Argentina de Historia Natural 1 (3): 129–167.
Ameghino, F. 1891c. Observaciones críticas sobre los mamíferos eocenos de la Patagonia austral. Revista Argentina de Historia Natural 1: 328–382.
Ameghino, F. 1894. Énumération synoptique des espèces de mammifères fossiles des formations éocènes de Patagonie. Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba 13: 259–455.
Ameghino, F. 1897. Mammifères crétacés de l'Argentine. Deuxième contribution à la connaissance de la faune mammalogique des couches à Pyrotherium. Boletín del Instituto Geográfico Argentino 18: 1–117.
Ameghino, F. 1898. Sinópsis geológica-paleontológica de la Argentina. In: De La Fuente (Ed.), Segundo Censo de la República Argentina Tomo 1, Taller Tipográfico de la Penitenciaría Nacional, Buenos Aires, p. 111–225.
Amson, E., de Muizon, C., Laurin, M., Argot, C., and de Buffrénil, V. 2014. Gradual adaptation of bone structure to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths from Peru. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 281(1782): 1–6.
Amson, E., Muizon, C., and Gaudin, T. J. 2016. A reappraisal of the phylogeny of the Megatheria (Mammalia: Tardigrada), with an emphasis on the relationships of the Thalassocninae, the marine sloths. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 179(1): 217–236.
Asher, R.J. and Helgen, K.M. 2010. Nomenclature and placental mammal phylogeny. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10:102.
Bargo, M.S. and Vizcaíno, S.F. 2008. Paleobiology of Pleistocene ground sloths (Xenarthra, Tardigrada): biomechanics, morphogeometry and ecomorphology applied to the masticatory apparatus. Ameghiniana 45: 175–196.
Bargo, M.S., Toledo N. and Vizcaíno, S.F. 2012. Paleobiology of the Santacrucian sloths and anteaters (Xenarthra, Pilosa). In: S.F. Vizcaíno, R.F. Kay and M.S. Bargo (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: high-latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 216–242.
Bordas, A.F. 1939. Los restos de mamíferos de la serie continental postpatagoniana e la Meseta del Castillo. Physis 14: 435–446.
Brandoni, D. 2014. “Xyophorus” sp. en el Mioceno Medio de Chubut: implicancias sistemáticas, biogeográficas y biocronológicas del registro de un Nothrotheriinae en el Neógeno de la Argentina. Ameghiniana 51: 94–105.
Brandoni, D., González Ruiz, L., Reato, A. and Martin, G. 2017. Chronological implications of the nothrotheriid ‘Xyophorus’ (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Collón Curá Formation (Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina). Historical Biology https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2017.1398748
Croft, D.A., Anaya, F., Auerbach, D., Garzione, C. and MacFadden, B.J. 2009. New data on Miocene Neotropical provinciality from Cerdas, Bolivia. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 16: 175–198.
Cuitiño, J.I., Fernicola, J.C., Kohn, M., Trayler, R., Naipauer, M., Bargo, M.S., Kay, R.F. and Vizcaíno, S.F. 2016. U-Pb geochronology of the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene) at the Río Bote and Río Santa Cruz (southernmost Patagonia, Argentina): implications for the correlation of fossil vertebrate localities. Journal of South America Earth Sciences 70: 198–210.
Cuitiño, J.I., Vizcaíno, S.F., Bargo, M.S. and Aramendía, I. In press. Sedimentology and fossil vertebrates of the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene) in Lago Posadas, a sub-Andean locality of southwestern Patagonia. Andean Geology
Cuitiño, J.I. Fernicola, J.C., Raigemborn, M.S. and Krapovickas, V. This volume. Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early Miocene) along the Río Santa Cruz, Southern Patagonia, Argentina. Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina.
De Iuliis, G. 1994. Relationships of the Megatheriinae, Nothrotheriinae, and Planopsinae: some skeletal characteristics and their importance for phylogeny. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14: 577–591.
De Iuliis, G., Gaudin, T.J., and Vicars, M. 2011. A new genus and species of nothrotheriid sloth (Xenarthra, Tardigrada, Nothrotheriidae) from the late Miocene (Huayquerian) of Peru. Palaeontology 54: 171–205.
De Iuliis, G., Pujos, F., Toledo, N., Bargo, M.S. and Vizcaíno, S.F. 2014. Eucholoeops Ameghino, 1887 (Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae) from the Santa Cruz Formation, Argentine Patagonia: implications for revising the systematics of Santacrucian sloths. Geodiversitas 36: 209–255.
Fernicola, J.C. 2011. Implicancias del conflicto Ameghino-Moreno sobre la colección de mamíferos fósiles realizada por Carlos Ameghino en su primera exploración al río Santa Cruz, Argentina. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, n.s. 13: 41–57.
Fernicola, J.C., Cuitiño, J., Vizcaíno, S.F., Bargo, M.S. and Kay, R.F. 2014. Fossil localities of the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene, Patagonia, Argentina) prospected by Carlos Ameghino in 1887 revisited and the location of the Notohippidian. Journal of South America Earth Sciences 52: 9–107.
Fernicola, J.C. and Vizcaíno, S.F. This volume. Cingulates (Mammalia, Xenarthra) of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early Miocene, Burdigalian) from the Río Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia. Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina.
Fleagle, J.H., Perkins, M. E., Heizler, M.T., Nash, B., Bown, T.M., Tauber, A.A., Dozo, M.T., and Tejedor M.F. 2012. Absolute and relative ages of fossil localities in the Santa Cruz and Pinturas Formations. In Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F. and Bargo, M.S. (Eds), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: high-latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 41–58.
Gaudin, T.J. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships among sloths (Mammalia, Xenarthra, tardigrada): the craniodental evidence. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, London 140: 255–305.
Hautier, L., Gomes Rodrigues, H., Billet, G. and Asher, R.J. 2016. The hidden teeth of sloths: evolutionary vestiges and the development of a simplified dentition. Scientific Reports 6: 27763.
Hoffstetter, R. 1961. Description d’un squelette de Planops (Gravigrade du Miocène de Patagonie). Mammalia 25: 57–96.
Hoffstetter, R. 1982. Les Edentés Xénarthres, un groupe singulier de la faune néotropicale (origine, affinités, radiation adaptative, migrations et extinctions). In: Gallitelli, E. (Ed.), Palaeontology, Essential of Historical Geology, Proccedings First International Meeting of Paleontology, p. 385–443.
Kay, R.F.; Vizcaíno, S.F. and Bargo, M.S. 2012. A review of the paleoenvironment and paleoecology of the Miocene Santa Cruz Formation. In: Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F. and Bargo, M.S. (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: High-Latitude Paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 331–365.
Lydekker, R. 1894. Contribuciones al conocimiento de los vertebrados fósiles de la Argentina. Part II. Anales del Museo de La Plata, Paleontología Argentina 1: 1–118.
Marshall, L.G. 1975. The Handel T. Martin paleontological expedition to Patagonia in 1903. Ameghiniana 12: 109–111.
Marshall, L.G. 1976. Fossil localities for Santacrucian (Early Miocene) mammals, Santa Cruz Province, Southern Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Paleontology 50: 1129–1142.
McDonald, H.G., and De Iuliis, G. 2008. Fossil history of sloths. In: Vizcaíno S.F. and Loughry W.J. (Eds), The Biology of the Xenarthra. The University of Florida Press, Gainesville, p. 39–55.
McKenna, M.C. and Bell, S.K. 1997. Classification of Mammals above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, p. 631.
Matheos, S.D. and Raigemborn, M.S. 2012. Sedimentology and paleoenvironment of the Santa Cruz format ion. In: Vizcaíno, S.F. Kay, R.F. and Bargo, M.S. (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: High-Latitude Paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 59–82.
Mercerat, A. 1891. Datos sobre restos de mamíferos fósiles pertenecientes a los Bruta. Revista del Museo de La Plata 2: 1–46.
Meredith, R.W., JaneČka, J.E., Gatesy, J., Ryder, O.A., Fisher, C.A., Teeling, E.C., Goodbla, A., Eizirik, E., Simão, T.L.L., Stadler, T., Rabosky, D.L., Honeycutt, R.L., Flynn, J. J., Ingram, C.M., Steiner, C., Williams, T.L., Robinson, T.J., Burk-Herrik, A., Westerman, M., Ayoub, N.A., Springer, M .S., and Murphy, W.J. 2011. Impacts of the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution and KPg extinction on mammal diversification. Science 334: 521–524.
Mones, A. 1986. Palaeovertebrata Sudamericana. Catálogo Sistemático de los Vertebrados fósiles de América del Sur. Parte I. Lista Preliminar y Bibliografía. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 82: 1–625.
Moreno, F.P. 1879. Viaje a la Patagonia Austral, emprendido bajo los auspicios del Gobierno Nacional, 1876-1877. La Nación Press, Buenos Aires.
O’Leary, M.A., Giallombardo, A., Luo, Zhe-Xi, Meng, J., Bloch, J.I., Giannini, N.P., Ni, X., Flynn, J.J., Gaudin, T.J., Goldberg, S.L., Novacek, M.J., Kraatz, B.P., Perini, F.A., Randall, Z.S., Simmons, N.B., Rougier, G.W., Spaulding, M., Sargis, E.J., Velazco, P.M., Silcox, M.T., Weksler, M., Wible, J.R. and Cirranello, A.L. 2013. The placental mammal ancestor and the post–K-Pg radiation of placentals. Science 662: 339.
Parras, A., Dix, G.R., and Griffin, M. 2012. Sr-isotope chronostratigraphy of Paleogene/ Neogene marine deposits: Austral Basin, southern Patagonia (Argentina). Journal of South American Earth Sciences 37: 122–135.
Pascual, R. 1960. Una nueva superfamilia ‘Entelopsoidea’ descripción de la nueva especie ‘Entelops parodii’. Acta Geológica Lilloana 3: 127–146.
Perea, D. 1999. Un singular grupo de perezosos, los ‘Nothrotheriinae’ (Xenarthra). Boletín de la Sociedad Zoológica del Uruguay, 2 época 10: 1–8.
Perkins, M.E., Fleagle, J.G., Heizler, M.T., Nash, B, Bown, T.M., Tauber, A.A. and Dozo, M.T. 2012. Tephrochronology of the Miocene Santa Cruz and Pinturas Formations, Argentina. In: S.F. Vizcaíno, R.F. Kay and M.S. Bargo (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: High-Latitude Paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 23–40.
Pujos, F. and De Iuliis, G. 2007. Late Oligocene Megatherioidea fauna (Mammalia: Xenarthra) from Salla-Luribay (Bolivia): new data on basal sloth radiation and Cingulata-Tardigrada split. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27: 132–144.
Pujos, F., De Iuliis, G., Argot, C. and Werdelin, L. 2007. A peculiar climbing Megalonychidae from the Pleistocene of Peru and its implication for sloth history. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149: 179–235.
Pujos, F., De Iuliis, G. and Mamani Quispe, B. 2011. Hiskatherium saintandrei gen. et sp. nov.: an unusual sloth from the Laventan of Quebrada Honda (Bolivia) and an overview of middle Miocene, small megatherioids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31: 1131–1149.
Racco, A., Fernicola, J.C., Bargo, M.S., Vizcaíno, S.F. and De Iuliis, G. 2018. On the type of Schismotherium fractum Ameghino, 1887 (Xenarthra, Folivora, Megatherioidea) from the Early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (Santa Cruz province, Argentina). Ameghiniana 55: 117–125.
Raigemborn, M.S., Matheos, S.D., Krapovickas, V., Vizcaíno, S.F., Bargo, M.S., Kay, R.F., Fernicola, J.C. and Zapata, L. 2015. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the coastal Monte Léon and Santa Cruz formations (early Miocene) at Rincón del Buque, southern Patagonia: A revisited locality. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 60: 31–55.
Saint-André, P.A. 1996. Deux nouveaux Édentés (Mammalia, Xenarthra) Trachycalyptoides achirense nov. gen. et nov. sp. (Glyptodontidae, Sclerocalyptinae) et Xyophorus villarroeli nov. sp. (Megatheriidae, Nothrotheriinae) du Huayquérien (Miocène supérieur) de l’Altiplano bolivien. Bulletin du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 4º Serie 18: 79–106.
Scillato-Yané, G.J. 1979. Nuevo Nothrotheriinae (Edentata, Tardigrada) de Edad Chasiquense (Plioceno temprano) del sur de la Prov. de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Su importancia bioestratigráfica, filogenética y paleobiogeográfica. VII Congreso Geológico Argentino,
Actas 2: 449-457.
Scott, W.B. 1903. Mammalia of the Santa Cruz beds. Part I. Edentata. In: Scott W.B. (Ed.), Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia 1896–1899. Vol. 5, Paleontology 2, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 1–226.
Scott, W.B. 1904. Mammalia of the Santa Cruz beds. Part I. Edentata. In: Scott, W.B. (Ed.), Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia 1896–1899. Vol. 5, Paleontology 2, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 227–364.
Simpson, G.G. 1940. Review of the mammal-bearing Tertiary of South America. Proceedings of the American Philosophy Society 83: 649–709.
Simpson, G.G. 1941. A Miocene sloth from Southern Chile. American Museum Novitates 1156: 1–6.
Vizcaíno, S.F. and Loughry, W.J. 2008. The Biology of the Xenarthra. University Press of Florida, Gainesville,
Vizcaíno, S.F., Bargo M.S. and Fariña, R.A. 2008. Form, function and paleobiology in xenarthrans. In: Vizcaíno S.F. and Loughry, W.L. (Eds.), The Biology of the Xenarthra. Florida, University Press of Florida, p. 86–99.
Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F., and Bargo, M.S. 2012a. Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: high-latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 370 pp.
Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay R.F., and Bargo M.S. 2012b. Background for a paleoecological study of the Santa Cruz Formation (late Early Miocene) on the Atlantic Coast of Patagonia. In: Vizcaíno, S.F., Kay, R.F. and Bargo, M.S. (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia: high-latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, p. 1–22.
Vizcaíno, S.F., Brinkman, P.D. and Kay, R.F. 2016. On the objectives and results of the Handel T. Martin paleontological expedition (1903-04) to the Santa Cruz Formation in southern Patagonia. Revista del Museo de La Plata 1: 316–333.
Vizcaíno, S.F., De Iuliis, G., Brinkman, P.D., Kay, R.F., and Brinkman, D.L. 2017. On an album of photographs recording fossils in the "Old Collections" of the Museo de La Plata and Ameghino’s private collection at the beginning of the XXth Century. Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina 17: 14–23.
Vizcaíno, S.F., Bargo, M.S., Cuitiño, J.I., Pérez, M.E., Muñoz, N.A., Aramendía, I., Tomassini R.L. and Kay, R.F. 2018. The outstanding Río Chalía (= Sehuén) outcrops of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early Miocene, Burdigalian) and its fossil vertebrate content. Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina 19(1)R: 85.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
