A Quaternary very young juvenile Tapirus Brisson, 1762 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from a cave deposit in northern Brazil: taxonomy and taphonomy

Abstract

During fieldworks carried out from 2009 to 2013 in Aurora do Tocantins (northern Brazil), three isolated deciduous teeth of Tapirus were recovered. Those fossils come from a sedimentary deposit of presumed Late Pleistocene–early Holocene age in a karstic cave. This contribution aims to present a new locality of fossil Tapirus from northern Brazil, describe for the first time deciduous fossil teeth for South American Tapirus and evaluate the taphonomic aspects of those fossils. The specimens probably belong to the same individual due to there are no repeated teeth and they have the same wear pattern. Furthermore, the crowns of those teeth show no evidence of abrasion produced by transport. However, some abrasion is observed on the borders of the pulp chamber of teeth. These polishing are probably resulting of a very short transport (parautochthonous). These specimens are the only record of Tapiridae in Gruta do Urso cave; due to correspond to isolated and deciduous teeth, its identification to species level was not possible. There is not yet clear evidence that may indicate the kind of death of the individual studied here.

Keywords::

• Tapiridae
• Tocantins State
• morphology
• morphometry
• age estimation
• South America

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alejandro G. Kramarz (MACN), C. Cartelle (PUC-Minas), I. Olivares (MLP) for access to material under their care. We extend our acknowledgements to W. de Moura and the Municipality of Aurora do Tocantins for supporting logistically all the fieldtrips. Anonymous referees and Editor (G. Dyke) helped to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

The field trips, which resulted in the collection of the specimen, were made possible by the financial support of the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [grant number 401812/2010-3] (Edital MCT/CNPq no. 32/2010 – Fortalecimento da Paleontologia Nacional/Edital 32/2010) and the UNIRIO. Also, this study was partially funded by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil, and by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and the PICT 2010-0804.