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A RODENT and a PECCARY from the CENOZOIC of COLOMBIA By

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A RODENT AND A PECCARY FROM THE CENOZOIC OF COLOMBIA by R. A. STIRTON Museum of Paleontology, University of California. A RODENT AND A PECCARY FROM THE CENOZOIC OF COLOMBIA (1) (LAMINA LXXXIII) RESUMEN Se estudian restos de mamíferos del Cenozoico colombiano descubiertos por el Dr. José Royo y Górilez, del Servicio Geoló- gico Nacional. Se trata primeramente de un premolar superior y un incisivo de un roedor histricomorfo de la superfamilia Ca- vioidea y familia Dinomyidae; es una especie nueva, Gyriabrus? royoi Stirton, de edad miocena superior a pliocena inferior pro- cedente del Km. 35 de la carretera de Tolú, Municipio de Sincelejo, Departamento de Bolívar. Se estudia luego la parte posterior de una mandíbula inferior izquierda con el último molar de un pecarí referible a la familia Tayassuidae y a un género y especie nuevos, Selenogonus nariñoensis Stirton, encontrada cerca de la Cocha Verde, carretera de Túquerres, Municipio de Tangua, Departa- mento de Nariño, correspondiente al Plioceno superior o al Pleis- toceno. My attention was directed to two interesting fossil vertebrate spe- cimens when I was in Bogotá as a Guggénheim fellow in september 1944. These were obtained in the field by Dr. José Royo y Gómez, geologist for the Ministerio de Minas y Petróleos, Servicio Geológico Nacional de Co- lombia. I am indebted to Dr. Alejandro del Río, director of the Servicio Geológico Nacional and to Dr. Royo y Gómez for the privilege of describ- ing these specimens. The locality information was supplied by Dr. Royo y Gómez and the illustrations were made by Owen J. Poe. DINOMYIDAE Alston One specimen is represented by an upper premolar and an incisor of a hystricomorph rodent. It belongs to a group of hypodont rodent that has had varied family assignments depending on the author and the date of publication. Agreement on the classification of the suborder Hystri- comorpha has not yet been attained, but until we have a clearer unders- tanding of the group as a whole and the superfamily Cavioidea in parti- cular, I favor including the following genera under the family Dinomyi- dae : Dinomys, Clidomys, Spirodontomys, Speoxenus, Tetrastylomys, Pen- tastylomys, Carlesia, Telicomys, Eumegamys, Isostylomys, Rusconia, Dia- phoromys, Protomegamys, Pseudosigmomys, Tetrastylopsis, Phoberomys, Euphilus, Tetrastylus, Gyriabrus, Protomarchus, Disclomys, Eusigmomys, Simplimus, Telodontomys, Neoepiblema, Dabbenea, Elasmodoutomys, Amblyrhiza, Quemisia, Morenella ánd Heptaxodon. 1.—University of California Studies in Paleontology in cooperation with the "Servicio Geológico de Colombia".—Contribution N9 1. 320 ESTUDIOS GEOLOGICOS Many of these genera have been included in Kraglievich's families Eumegamyidae, Neoepiblemidae and Potamarchidae by Argentine paleon- tologists (Kraglievich 1926, 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1934; Rusconi 1934 a-b). Earlier Rovereto (1914) placed the genera Megamys (1) and Te- traslylus in the family Vixcaccidae (now called Chinchillidae). Patterson (1942) in describing a new species from Brazil referred Phoberomys to the Heptaxodontidae but he did not discuss family relationships; and Simpson (1945, pp. 95-96, 212) in his admirable classification of mam- mals places Dinomys in monotypic family, the Dinomyidae, and then in- eludes most of the aboye genera in the Heptaxodontidae. Anthony (1916, 1917, 1926) after much thought on the problem followed Miller and Gid- ley (1918) in placing Dinomys, Megamys, Tetrastylus, Amblyrhiza, and Elasmodontomys in the Dinomyidae. Of course his classification, was made prior to the description of thirteen genera and about two dozen spe- cies from the Pliocene (2) of Argentine by Kraglievich and Rusconi. The evidence from these fossil forms, however, strengthens rather than detracts from the idea of including these genera in the Dinomyidae. Kra- glievich (1934, p. 101) has directed a ttention to a very close similarity between Tetrastylus, Telicomys, and Eumegamys, with Dinomys notwith- standing the absense of "paracondilos" in .Dinomys. For this reason he places Dinomys in a separate subfamily of his family Eumegamyidae. It will require more morphologic and stratigraphic information to clarify the relationships of these interesting genera. For definition of the family Dinomyidae see Miller and Gidley (1918, p. 446) and Ellerman (1940, p. 26). ?Gyriabrus royoi Stirton, n. sp. (Lámina LXXXIII, figs. 1 y 2) Type: Right upper premolar, P4, little worn, and upper incisor ; Type locality: Light greenish-gray fine grained sandstone ; Kilome- ter 35 carretera de Tolú, Sincelejo, Bolívar, Colombia. Age: Proba)* late Miocene with some possibility of being lower Plio- cene. Diagnosis and description: P4 hypsodont, height of crown 17.3 mm.; open at base —not rooted; four labial and two lingual lateral grooves— extend from crown to base of tooth ; two anterior transverse inflections connect the lateral grooves on each side of tooth, forming two isolated laminae ; the three posterior dental laminae connected along lingual bor- der; anterior enamel borders of laminae thick, posterior enamel borders thin, not crenulated; second and third laminae of equal transverse length; greatest transverse width of tooth 7.0 mm.; greatest anteroposterior length 7.5 mm. There is a small oppressed area on the upper posterior border indicating a contact surface for M1. 1.—The type of Megamys (a tibia and a patella) is considered as litoptern and the rodent species referred to the genus subsequent to the original description are now assigned to different genera usted aboye (Kraglievich, 1926). 2.—I am following Simpson's (1945) age determinations since I am not familiar with the Argentine faunas. E N U allIAA 1. an. IVI1ST D• 1 11. — /LIMO ‘v7"TT 321 Upper incisor —strongly curved enamel face nearly flattened. Comparison: A high crowned premolar with lateral grooves extend- ing to the base of the rootless crown are the characters which tend to orient this specimen into the family Dinomyidae Alston, though it is much smaller than the genera (1) from the Entre Ríos fossils of the Pa- raná (Mesopotamian) here assigned to the family. The Colombian specimen cannot be accurately compared with the Argentine genera until we have detailed knowledge of the height of crowns and the lenght of the lateral grooves in those specimens. Kraglievich concludes that the number of laminae on the cheek teeth is not to be relied upen in recognizing different genera. His opinion is based on the fact that in the type lower jaw of Eumegamys paranensis Kraglievich there are six laminae on P4, four on M1 an five each on M2 and M,. If such characters are not reliable this group of rodents is in need of critica] review, because some of the genera have been identified on the number of laminae. Gyriabrus and Tetrastylus are nearer to the size of the ?G. royoi than are the other Argentine genera with which it has been compared. The species of Tetrastylus differ in being slightly larger and in possess- ing four instead of five laminae, but no upper dentitions of this gentil have been described. Gyriabrus, and especially G. holmbergi (Ameghino), is close to the Colombian species in its dental pattern of five laminae ex- cept on M1, which has four. Likewise the occlusal surface is about 3 mm longer in G. holmbergi but the width is the same. G. holmbergi differs in that the first and third laminae are about equal in transverse width and the second is the widest, whereas in ?G. royoi the second and the third laminae are of equal width and the widest on the tooth. In his description of Gyriabrus glutinatus Ameghino gives the following dimensions (the type of this genotypic species is a lower molar) "anteroposterior, 8 mi- límetros ; tranverso, 7 milímetros ; longitud en línea recta de la raíz a la corona, 27 milímetros". Though the occlusal dimensions are about the same the crown is nearly twice as high as in the Colombian specimen Gyriabrus and Tetrastylus, though larger than ?G. royoi, are nearer to it in size than the much larger Eumegamys, Isotylomys, Rusconia and related genera some of which approach it closely in their dental patterns. I am, therefore, tentatively referring this species to the genus Gy riabrus Ameghino 1891, at the same time realizing that it could be as do se or even more closely related to such genera as Discolomys or Potamar chus. The smaller size of ?G. royoi may be due to its being older geologi cally than those from Argentine or it could be a small species of about the same age. More information from the Sincelejo locality may reveal its exact age. TAYASSUIDAE The second specimen is peccary. Unfortunately only the posterior portion of a left lower jaw from this peculiar animal is preserved. It was found by some workmen who were -employed in highway construction. Apparently no other vertebrate fossils were seen in that vecinity. This 1.—Recently Simpson (1945) has referred these genera to the Pliocene, 322 ESTUDIOS GEOLOGICOS mandibular fragment was figured by Dr. Royo y Gómez (1942, p. 126, fig. 29) in his report ora the economic geology of the Nariño y Alto Putu- mayo area. Selenogonus (1) nariñoensis Stirton, n. gen. and n. sp. (Lámina LXXXIII, fig. 3) Type: Posterior part of left mandible with hypolophid and hypoco, nulid of 1VIa well preserved. Type locality: Dark green fine-grained sandstone, Cocha Verde, Ca- rretera de Túquerres-Tangua, Nariño, Colombia. (See Royo y Gómez, 1942, p. 115, muestra 927; p. 118, muestras 930, 931, 933). Age: Upper Pliocene or Pleistocene. Diagnosis and descriptien: Large, evidently about equal in
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    R E P O R T S tant role in locomotor propulsion than the fore- Ϫ1.678 ϩ 2.518 (1.80618), W ϭ 741.1; anteropos- phylogeny place Lagostomus together with Chin- limbs, which were probably important in food terior distal humerus diameter (APH): log W ϭ chilla (22). Ϫ1.467 ϩ 2.484 (1.6532), W ϭ 436.1 kg. 25. M. S. Springer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, manipulation. Because of this, the body mass 17. A. R. Biknevicius, J. Mammal. 74, 95 (1993). 6241 (2001). estimation based on the femur is more reliable: 18. The humerus/femur length ratio (H/F) and the (humer- 26. We thank J. Bocquentin, A. Ranci, A. Rinco´n, J. Reyes, P. pattersoni probably weighed ϳ700 kg. With us ϩ radius)/(femur ϩ tibia) length ratio [(H ϩ R)/(F ϩ D. Rodrigues de Aguilera, and R. S´anchez for help with Phoberomys, the size range of the order is in- T )] in P. pattersoni (0.76 and 0.78, respectively) are fieldwork; J. Reyes and E. Weston for laboratory work; average compared with those of other caviomorphs. For E. Weston and three anonymous reviewers for com- creased and Rodentia becomes one of the mam- a sample of 17 extant caviomorphs, the mean values Ϯ ments on the manuscript; O. Aguilera Jr. for assist- malian orders with the widest size variation, SD were H/F ϭ 0.80 Ϯ 0.08 and (H ϩ R)/(F ϩ T ) ϭ ance with digital imaging; S. Melendrez for recon- second only to the Diprotodontia (kangaroos, 0.74 Ϯ 0.09.