Cingulates (Mammalia, Xenarthra) of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early?Middle Miocene) from the Río Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia

FERNICOLA J. C.; VIZCAÍNO, S.F.

Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Año: 2019 vol. 19 p. 85 - 101

2469-0228

In recent years, an interdisciplinary group from the Museo de La Plata and Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ?Bernardino Rivadavia? (Argentina), and Duke University (USA), conducted expeditions to the classic Santacrucian (Early Miocene) sites along the Río Santa Cruz (Patagonia); from east to west: Barrancas Blancas, Segundas Barrancas Blancas and Yaten Huageno. Previously, in 1887Carlos Ameghino carried out the most important expedition that extensively explored these localities. The fossils collected allowed his brother Florentino to erect more than 100 species of vertebrates and to recognize the faunal association worldwide known as Santacrucian SALMA. In this contribution, we present a taxonomic list of cingulates based on the abundant materials obtained in those expeditions. In the westernmost locality, we recognize the armadillos Stenotatus patagonicus, Proeutatus oenophorus, and Prozaedyus proximus and the glyptodont Cochlops muricatus. All of them and the armadillos Peltephilus pumilus and the glyptodont Eucinepeltus sp. are recorded in the Segundas Barrancas Blancas. In the easternmost locality, Barranca Blancas, the armadillo Stegotherium tessellatum is added to these six taxa. The comparative analysis between the faunal composition of the Santa Cruz Formation in the Río Santa Cruz and other areas to the west and to east, allows detecting minor differences. Preliminarily, they suggest environmental differences between the analyzed regions.