PIPID FROG FROM THE PLEISTOCENE OF THE PAMPAS OF SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA

BAEZ, ANA MARIA; SCANFERLA, AGUSTIN; AGNOLIN, FEDERICO; CENIZO, MARCOS; DE LOS REYES, MARTIN

JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

SOC VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2008 p. 1195 - 1198

0272-4634

Crown-group Pipidae belongs to an ancient lineage of anuranswith many aquatic adaptations. Living pipids are confined to thetropical lowlands of northern South America east of the Andes,eastern Panama, and sub-Saharan Africa. In South America theyare represented by the genus Pipa, which includes one of themost bizarre-looking anurans, namely P. pipa (Trueb et al.,2000). Fossil finds, however, indicate that pipids formerly weremore taxonomically diverse and widespread in South America,reaching high latitudes in Patagonia during the Cretaceous andPaleogene (Báez, 1996, 2000; Báez and Pugener, 2003). Theirdisappearance from the fossil record in the southern part of thecontinent is coincident with the progressive climatic deteriorationthat began in the late Eocene–early Oligocene (Ortiz Jaureguizarand Cladera, 2006) and which may have contributed toa reduction of freshwater habitats in the region. Recent fieldworkin Quaternary outcrops in Argentina has led to the remarkablediscovery of pipid remains, 2000 km beyond the southernmostlimit of extant pipids in South America.