FIRST FOSSIL RECORD OF THE GENUS LEPIDOBATRACHUS BUDGETT, 1899 (ANURA, CERATOPHRYIDAE), FROM THE EARLY PLIOCENE OF ARGENTINA

TOMASSINI, RODRIGO; AGNOLIN, FEDERICO; OLIVA, CRISTIAN

JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

SOC VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2011 p. 1005 - 1009

0272-4634

The first fossil occurrence of the genus Lepidobatrachus is reported. The specimen comes from the FarolaMonte Hermoso locality (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina), more specifically from the early Pliocene levels of the MonteHermoso Formation. The specimen belongs to the living species L. laevis, a frog that currently inhabits the Chacoan regionof northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. The presence of this anuran represents the southernmost record for the genusLepidobatrachus, and is in agreement with previous hypothesis suggesting that during the Pliocene the climatic environmentalconditions of the southern Pampas were likely those of the modern Chacoan region. The disjunct distribution of extant L.laevis suggests that the retraction of Chacoan areas to the north modified the former distribution of this taxon, and that itscurrent geonemy may represent relics of a formerly more extensive geographic distribution.