INVESTIGADORES
PREVOSTI Francisco Juan
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
PALEOECOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIAN CARNIVORES (METATHERIA, SPARASSODONTA) OF THE SANTA CRUZ FORMATION (LATE EARLY MIOCENE)
Autor/es:
FRANCISCO J. PREVOSTI; ANALÍA FORASIEPI; MARCOS D. ERCOLI; GUILLERMO F. TURAZZINI
Reunión:
Jornada; XXVI Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados; 2012
Resumen:
During most of the Cenozoic, the predator guild in South America was mainly occupied by metatherians (Sparassodonta) and shared withother vertebrates (Phorusrhacidae Sebecidae, and Madtsoiidae). >e Sparassodonta was a diverse clade, recorded from the Paleocene–middlePliocene, with its acme in the late Early Miocene (Santacrucian Age). We reviewed the paleoecology of the Santacrucian sparassodonts andincluded new results obtained by geometric morphometric analyses. >e Santa Cruz Formation contains eleven sparassodont species: Acyontricuspidatus Mercerat, Cladosictis patagonica Ameghino, Sipalocyon gracilis Ameghino, S. obusta Ameghino, Pseudonotictis pusillus Ameghino,Perathereutes pungens Ameghino, Prothylacynus patagonicus Ameghino, Lycopsis torresi Cabrera, Borhyaena tuberata Ameghino, Acrocyon sectoriusAmeghino, and Arctodictis munizi Mercerat. >ese sparassodonts were primarily hypercarnivores (according to the tooth morphology),had di@erent locomotor abilities (from scansorial to terrestrial), and a wide range of body mass (between 1 kg and more than 50 kg). >ereconstruction of the Santacrucian predator guild suggests that there was a good ecological separation within sparassodonts, given by thecombination of the three parameters: body-size, diet, and locomotion. Even without taken into account the already recognized bias of thefossil record, the diversity of sparassodonts in the Santa Cruz Formation (eleven species) and in the lower Estancia La Costa Member ofthe Santa Cruz Formation (seven species), is similar to that recorded in some past and present placental hypercarnivore communities (e.g.,nowadays Patagonian Steppe or the Pampean Region have 12 species of terrestrial carnivores and less than eight hypercarnivores).