Biostratigraphic, systematics and palaeoecology of Protocyon Giebel, 1855 (Carnivora, Canidae) in South America

PREVOSTI, F. J.; ZURITA, A. E.; CARLINI, A. A.

JOURNAL OF SOUTH AMERICAN EARTH SCIENCES

ELSEVIER

Lugar: Oxford y New York; Año: 2005 vol. 20 p. 5 - 12

0895-9811

Abstract. Protocyon Giebel is a genus of strongly carnivorous canids adapted to open environments that inhabited South America during the Pleistocene. It is represented by four species: P. orcesi Hoffstetter from Ecuador; P. troglodytes Lund from Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil; P. scagliarum Kraglievich, which is the oldest record of the genus (Ensenadan), and a new unpublished species from the late Pleistocene. These two latter species are exclusive from Argentina. A new record (the first of Argentina) from the late Pleistocene of Formosa province is assigned to P. cf. P. troglodytes, and the main records of the genus are listed, with comments on the paleoecological and paleozoogeographic aspects of the species. As a final remark it may be stated that the oldest record of the genus is younger than 0.78 Ma BP, while the biochron of P. scagliarum would be between 0.78 and 0.5 Ma BP. The first records of P. troglodytes are probably older than 0.5 Ma BP, reaching the late Pleistocene; P. orcesi lived between 0.13 Ma and 10 Ka BP, and Protocyon sp. nov. between 0.5 Ma and 10 Ka BP. Finally, this finding in northern Argentina partially fills the geographic distribution of the P. troglodytes.