Late Quaternary caviomorph rodents (Rodentia: Hystricognathi) from the Serra da Capivara, northeastern Brazil, with description of a new taxon

Abstract

In this paper, fossil rodents (Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha) from the late Quaternary of the southwestern State of Piauí, northeastern Brazil, are described. The material comes from archaeological/palaeontological sites located in the region of the Serra da Capivara. The late Quaternary taxa of this region include Galea Meyen, 1832, Kerodon rupestris Wied-Neuwied, 1820, Hydrochoeridae indet., Dasyprocta Illiger, 1811, cf. Myocastor Kerr, 1792, Thrichomys Trouessart, 1880, Phyllomys Lund, 1839, Coendou magnus Lund, 1839 and a new taxon with chinchilloid affinities. The Coendou magnus and cf. Myocastor material represents the northernmost records of these taxa. The unexpected presence of a new extinct taxon contributes to the understanding of the ancient rodent faunas from South America. Today, the studied area is located within the Caatinga Biome but some of the fossil taxa, such as Hydrochoeridae and cf. Myocastor, indicate wetter environments and permanent water bodies during the late Pleistocene–early Holocene.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:92711BC3-8997-4474-A8AF-83DF4F91BB48

Keywords::

• Caviomorpha
• Brazil
• late Pleistocene
• early Holocene
• Caatinga Biome
• intertropical region

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Edital de Missões Curtas UFRGS 2012 for the financial support; Niede Guidon and her team, for the loan of the specimens of FUMDHAM; Kasper Lykke Hansen and João Alves de Oliveira for assistance and curation of the visited collections; Marco Aurélio França for help with the phylogenetic analysis; Katarzyna Piper for the English review; anonymous reviewers and editors of HB for their useful commentaries.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the CNPq through fellowships (LK and ELM) of the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências (UFRGS) and CNPq/Universal Processo 483156/2012-4. Edital de Missões Curtas UFRGS 2012 also financially supported to travel to the ZMK collection (Copenhagen).