Comparative skull osteology of Oreomylodon wegneri (Xenarthra, Mylodontinae): defining the taxonomic status of the Ecuadorian endemic mylodontid

ABSTRACT

The diversity reached by the mylodontids during the Pleistocene has been underestimated in the past. Oreomylodon wegneri, the endemic mylodontid of Ecuador, has been considered both a species of Glossotherium and a synonym of Glossotherium robustum. In this work, we provide a detailed description of abundant O. wegneri material and compare it with material of G. robustum from Argentina and other mylodontids. The study presented here shows that O. wegneri was a mylodontid with a singular cranial morphology, especially in the palate and nasal region and is possibly closer evolutionarily to Paramylodon harlani than to the more southern G. robustum.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank C. Montalvo (UCE), G. Medina and H. Román (INABIO), M. Espinosa (Museo Inst. Nac. Mejía), M. Reguero (MLP), A. A. Kramarz (MACN), G. Acuña and H. Arsani (MCA), E. Milicich, R. Paoletti, and staff of MLF, E. Aguirre (MPAHND), Y. Matos (MARC), M. L. Taglioretti and F. Scaglia (MMP), J. L. Ramírez (MMCIPAS), and M. Sioli (MRS) for facilitating access to collections; R. K. McAfee for images of crania of P. harlani; P. Lara, for his advice in the elaboration of the figures; and S. Bidart, M. Hidalgo, and staff of Biblioteca Florentino Ameghino, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo de La Plata, for providing relevant literature for this work. Secretary of Science and Technology of Universidad Nacional de Rosario helped finance this research. We thank editor E. Davis and reviewers H. G. McDonald and K. Prassack for comments that significantly improved the original manuscript.

ORCID

José Luis Román-Carrión http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0773-8393

Luciano Brambilla http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5670-7345