Insights into the Neotropics prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange: new evidence of mammalian predators from the Miocene of Northern Colombia

SUAREZ GOMEZ, C.; FORASIEPI, A. M.; GOIN, F.J.; JARAMILLO, C

JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

SOC VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2015

0272-4634

A new species of Sparassodonta (Mammalia, Metatheria), Lycopsis padillai sp. nov. is described on the basis of a partial left maxilla with M1?M4 and fragments of lacrimal and jugal. The material comes from the early to early middle Miocene Castilletes Formation, La Guajira Peninsula, Colombia. This specimen represents the Northern-most record of a fossil Metatheria in South America and integrates a highly diverse vertebrate association, recently discovered in the North of Colombia. The La Guajira specimen is referred to the genus Lycopsis, as supported by the results of our phylogenetic analysis. This analysis also demonstrates that all species of Lycopsis (L. torresi, L. longirostrus, L. viverensis, and L. padillai) constitute a monophyletic group and are placed as the basal taxon of Borhyaenoidea. L. padillai is a large size sparassodont with a body mass of about 22kg. The Lycopsis from La Guajira extends the geographical distribution of the genus to the entire South America, representing the sparassodont with the widest latitudinal distribution.