El registro más antiguo del género Bothrops (Serpentes, Viperidae) proveniente del Pleistoceno inferior a medio de Argentina

CARLOS AGUSTÍN SCANFERLA; SANTIAGO JAVIER NENDA

Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales

MACN

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2005 p. 177 - 181

1514-5158

The genus Bothrops has 32 living species distributed in the Neotropic. However,the fossil record of this serpent restricts to a specimen of B. alternatus found in the archaeological site Cueva Tixi (Upper Pleistocene-Holocene), Buenos Aires Province. Here we add a new record of Bothrops sp. excavated from sediments attributed to the Ensenada Formation (Early to Middle Pleistocene), exposed at José Hernandez locality, La Plata, Buenos Aires. The fossil is found 1,5 m. below the boundary betwen Matuyama and Brunhes polarity zones, thus corresponding to the Jaramillo Subchron (i.e., 0,915-1,01 million years before present). The specimen consists of an incomplete right compound bone, that exhibits features of Bothrops (e.g., mandibular fossae transversally and longitudinally wide; prearticular crest with a notable development compared with the surangular crest). The new specimen suggests that Bothrops entered South America more than 1 million years ago, an evidence that is in agreement with DNA information.