Quaternary sigmodontines (Mammalia, Rodentia) from Serra da Bodoquena, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Sigmodontine rodents are extremely diversified in the Neotropics but their fossil record remains generally poorly known, especially in Brazil. Here, we examine the assemblage of sigmodontines from the limestone cave Nossa Senhora Aparecida (21°5ʹ27.89”S 56°34ʹ28.77”W), located in Serra da Bodoquena (Mato Grosso do Sul), a karstic region in southwestern Brazil. We describe cranial and dental fragments and recognise the presence of some new species not previously recorded for the region, as Bibimys sp., Graomys cf. G. chacoensis, Thalpomys lasiotis, and Pseudoryzomys simplex. This fossil assemblage is comparable to others fossil sites in Brazil, such as those from Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul, with the predominance of species from open areas, including grasslands, and some of forested environments from Cerrado landscapes.

KEYWORDS:

• Sigmodontinae
• Bibimys
• Graomys
• Thalpomys
• Cerrado
• Pantanal

Acknowledgments

Fieldwork logistics and achievements should be credited to number of people from the local community, students and collaborators, but special thanks goes to Hamilton Garboggini. We are grateful to Ulyses Pardiñas, Marcelo Weksler, Guilherme Carvalho and Carolina Pires for the help with the identifications. And we are grateful to Patrícia Hadler and Ulyses Pardiñas for the valuable corrections of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.