Chaetophractus vellerosus (Mammalia: Dasypodidae) in the Ensenadan (Early to Middle Pleistocene) of southeastern Pampean region (Argentine). Paleozoogeographical and paleoclimatic aspects

SOIBELZON, E.; CARLINI, A. A.; TONNI, E. P.; SOIBELZON, L. H.

NEUES JAHRBUCH FUR GEOLOGIE UND PALAONTOLOGIE-MONATSHEFTE

Lugar: Stuttgart; Año: 2006 p. 734 - 748

0028-3630

The xenarthran fauna recognized for the Ensenadan age is particularly abundant; Dasypodidae comprise approximately 20% of the total fauna. Chaetophractus vellerosus is recorded in the pampean region from the Bonaerian-Lujanian (Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene) to the present, with current disjunct distribution (a continuous main area comprising the Great Chaco and central Argentina, and a secondary area in the coastal region of Buenos Aires Province) attributed to a wider paleodistribution. The materials presented here are from Ensenadan sediments, outcropping at Punta Hermengo (General Alvarado County, Buenos Aires Province), that would have been deposited under arid to semiarid climate conditions; and allow to extend the temporal distribution of the species to the Ensenadan in the Pampean region, as well as representing new evidence to test hypotheses of distributional changes related to global climatic variations recognized for the Quaternary. In this sense, the current disjunct distribution can be interpreted as the result of fundamentally humid recent conditions that resulted in relictual presence of the species in non-climaxic areas.