The armadillo Propraopus sulcatus (Mammalia: Xenarthra) from the late Quaternary of northern Brazil and a revised synonymy with Propraopus grandis

CASTRO, MC; AVILLA, L.; FREITAS M.; CARLINI A.A.

QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 2013 p. 1 - 8

1040-6182

This paper describes new remains of Propraopus sulcatus from a late Quaternary cave deposit located in Aurora doTocantins, northern Brazil. Propraopuswas recorded innumerous late Pleistoceneeearly Holocene sites in South America, and its inclusiveness has been long debated. In order to address some of the controversial taxonomic questions, the osteoderms of P. sulcatus were qualitatively and quantitatively compared to those of related nominal species (Propraopus grandis, Propraopus magnus, Dasypus bellus, and Dasypus punctatus); special attentionwas given to the former due to the debated synonymy between both taxa. Analyses reveal that there is no morphologic, spatial, or temporal discontinuity between P. sulcatus and P. grandis. Adopting morphologic, associational, and distributional criteria to define morphospecies, we believe it is impossible to clearly separate both nominal entities. As a consequence, in agreement with previous studies, we favor their synonymization. P. sulcatus has nomenclatural priority over P. grandis and should be the validnamefor the species. The scarce analyzed remains referred to P. magnus showconcordant size and morphology with P. sulcatus, but the analysis of more complete material is essential to determine its synonymization. Finally, we revised and updated the geochronologic distribution of Propraopus.