Tayassu pecari (Link, 1795) (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla): comments on its South American fossil record, taxonomy and paleobiogeography

Abstract

Tayassu pecari is widely distributed across the Neotropical region, from northern Argentina to south-eastern Mexico. However, its fossil record is scarce; it is recorded since the middle Pleistocene to Holocene in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. This paper aims to: (1) update the systematic synonymy of this species; (2) review and update its geographic chronologic distribution and provide a new Lujanian record of Tayassu pecari in Buenos Aires Province and (3) discuss the paleoenvironmental and paleobiogeographical implications of this record. Considering the quantitative analysis performed, the fossil here recorded clearly integrates the group of Tayassu pecari. This specimen corresponds to the first record of Tayassu pecari in the central-northern region of the Buenos Aires Province. During Late Pleistocene, Tayassu pecari was distributed southern to its recent range, probably evidencing different paleoenvironment conditions. This species is the better adapted peccary to tropical and subtropical rainforests, but may also be present in arid environments. Consequently, Tayassu by itself is insufficient to infer the prevailing environmental conditions. However, according to the fauna associated with the specimen described here, it is possible to infer an open or semi-open and arid or semi-arid environment for the central-northern Buenos Aires region by Late Pleistocene times.

Keywords::

• white-lipped peccary
• Tayassuidae
• Bonaerian
• Lujanian
• Quaternary
• South America

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). The authors are grateful to the following curators and collection managers for hospitality in the collections and permitting access to specimens: Alejandro Kramarz and Olga Vaccaro (MACN), Marcelo Reguero, Martín de Los Reyes and Mariano Merino (MLP), Isabel Gamarra de Fox and Darío Mandelburger (MNHNP), and David Piazza (RMP). The authors appreciate all help from the group involved in the prospection and collection of the material (Palaeontology Area of the Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, UNLP).

Notes

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Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by PICT 2010-0804 Préstamo BID.