CALYPTOCEPHALELLA (ANURA, AUSTRALOBATRACHIA) REMAINS FROM RÍO SANTA CRUZ (EARLY?MIDDLE MIOCENE, SANTA CRUZ FORMATION), SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, ARGENTINA

MUZZOPAPPA, PAULA

La Plata

Otro; Reunión de Comunicaciones de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina; 2019

In this contribution, the first anuran fossil remains recovered from classical Santacrucian localities of the Río Santa Cruz are described. Even if only two fragments of maxilla and an almost complete frontoparietal, the remains are assigned to the southern gondwanan Calyptocephalella according to the general morfphology of the elements and for the presence of tongue-like processes (observable and inferred from evident scars) projected from the frontoparietal and squamosal towards other skull elements. Furthermore, the type of exostosis over the dermal skull elements, the proportions recorded for the orbital and postorbital regions as well as the peculiar morphology of the pars palatina, among others, allows to recognize these remains as pertaining to a specimen of Calyptocephalella cf. C. Canqueli. This identification extends to southern Santa Curz the distribution of the extinct species, formerly restricted to Scarritt Pocket and Puesto Baibián localities in the Province of Chubut, defining this species to be a conspicuous component of the aquatic environments of the warm temperate climatic biotas during the late Oligocene?early Miocene times of Patagonia