ON THE PRESENCE OF NASUA IN THE BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE IN THE LATE HOLOCENE

RAMÍREZ, M.; PREVOSTI, F.; ACOSTA, A.; BUC, N.; LOPONTE, D.

Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales N. S.

MACN CONICET

Año: 2015 vol. 17 p. 51 - 58

The genus Nasua is represented by two species, Nasua nasua and Nasua narica. Its current distributionspans from the south of North America to the north of the Rio Negro in Uruguay. Both species of thegenus inhabit a great number of forested habitats. In Argentina, the species Nasua nasua is found in Tucuman,Jujuy, Chaco, Formosa and the northeast of Santa Fe. In the present contribution we describe a lower canineof Nasua nasua from the late Holocene of the Arroyo Fredes archaeological site, in the Parana?s Delta, BuenosAires Province, Argentina, which is outside the current distribution of this species. We compared the canine withseveral specimens of Nasua nasua both males and females. Given the strong sexual dimorphism observed in thecanines of this species, we recognized the specimen as a male. Two hypotheses can explain the presence of thisspecimen in the Parana?s Delta of Buenos Aires: (1) Current and past climatic similarities between the southernmostrecord of the species and the Arroyo Fredes archeological site, and the corridor effect caused by the galleryforests. (2) Human transport by the guaranies