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Mammalia: Notoungulata) from Mene De Inciarte Tar Pit, North-Western Venezuela Interciencia, Vol Interciencia ISSN: 0378-1844 [email protected] Asociación Interciencia Venezuela Rincón, Ascanio D. New remains of Mixotoxodon larensis Van Frank 1957 (Mammalia: Notoungulata) from mene de inciarte tar pit, north-western Venezuela Interciencia, vol. 36, núm. 12, diciembre, 2011, pp. 894-899 Asociación Interciencia Caracas, Venezuela Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=33921507005 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative NEW REMAINS OF Mixotoxodon larensis Van Frank 1957 (Mammalia: Notoungulata) FROM MENE DE INCIARTE TAR PIT, NORTH-WESTERN VENEZUELA AScaniO D. RincÓN SUMMARY Mixotoxodon larensis was a rhino-like mammal, which repre- its record spreads between 15°S (Bolivia) and 18°N (México). sents the northernmost Pleistocene toxodontid, and its remains Here a new record is reported for this species at Mene de In- are known from many localities in Central and South America. ciarte tar pits, Sierra de Perija, Zulia State, Venezuela, with an Biogeographically, M. larensis is an intertropical taxon because age estimate of 25-27000 years old (Late Pleistocene). oxodontidae are medium (Schaub, 1935). In 1937 toxodontids were San Miguel, Lara State. The Muaco locality to large terrestrial herbivo- also reported from the localities of El Totu- is late Pleistocene in age, dating between rous Notoungulata, easily mo, San Miguel and El Zanjón de la Repre- 14000 and 17000 years ago (Cruxent, 1961). recognized by their specialized anterior den- sa, north of Barquisimeto, Lara State (Nec- An additional middle or tition, ever-growing incisor tusks, and dis- tario María, 1938). late Pleistocene record of Mixotoxodon cf. M. tinctive high-crowned molars (Madden, During 1938 and 1939 larensis was reported from Zumbador Cave, 1997). This family was widespread in South George Gaylord Simpson excavated the San Falcón State, by Rincón (2004). The last re- America during the Cenozoic, becoming Miguel locality, in Lara State. He considered cord of M. larensis comes from the Plio- very abundant in the Miocene. The first re- the fauna to be Pleistocene in age, and re- Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual, Monagas mains of these animals were found by ported remains of Edentata, Notoungulata State, Venezuela (Rincón et al., 2009). The Charles Darwin and described by Richard and Proboscidea, which are deposited in the present notes document new remains of Owen (1837). The oldest record of the Tox- American Museum of Natural History, New Mixotoxodon larensis from Mene de Inciarte, odontidae Family comes from the Oligocene York, USA (Van Frank, 1957). Later, Van in the foothills of the Sierra de Perijá, Zulia of Patagonia, southern Argentina. Toxodon- Frank (1957) referred the toxodontids (No- State, western Venezuela, with a preliminary tids are also known from the Neogene of toungulata) from Venezuela to a different discussion about paleoecological and bioge- Brazil, Perú, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, genus, named the material from San Miguel ographycal aspects of this species. Venezuela, and Colombia. During the Pleis- as a new genus and species, Mixotoxodon tocene they reached North America (Nasif larensis, and also reported the age to be Institutional abbreviations. MBLUZ-P: Mu- et al., 2000). probably Pleistocene, but the actual age is seo de Biología de la Universidad del Zulia, From the Venezuelan still unknown. Sección de Paleontología, Maracaibo, Vene- Pleistocene, the first record of toxodontids is Shortly thereafter, Royo y zuela. VF: Museo Royo y Gómez, Universi- from El Tocuyo, Lara State, where Toxodon Gómez (1960) reported Toxodon platensis dad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezu- was recovered (Karsten, 1886). In 1928 from Muaco locality, Falcón State, but did ela. AMNH: American Museum of Natural Gyrinodon quassus was registered from the not comment on Van Frank (1957) taxonomic History, New York, NY, USA. UF FMNH: northwest of Buchivacoa (Hopwood, 1928) revision. This was corrected by Bocquentin- Florida Museum of Natural History, Gaines- and has been attributed to the Huayquerian Villanueva (1979), who reviewed the material ville, FL, USA. (Late Miocene) from Venezuela, Bolivia and collected by Royo y Gómez (1960) and indi- Brazil (Nasif et al., 2000). In 1935 the pres- cated that the toxodontids from Muaco be- Terminology. Dental dimensions and termi- ence of Toxodon platensis was reported in long to Mixotoxodon larensis, and comment- nology of Madden (1990), and Toxodontidae Agua Viva del Totumo, Lara State, from ed on the existence of an indeterminate tox- taxonomy of Saint-André (1999) are fol- sediments of probable Pleistocene age odontid that was similar to M. larensis, from lowed. KEYWORDS / Mammals / Mene de Inciarte / Mixotoxodon / Tar Pits / Venezuela / Received: 26/09/2011. Accepted: 28/11/2011. Ascanio D. Rincón. Biologist, Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela. Ph.D. in Ecology, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas (IVIC). Investigador, IVIC, Venezuela. Dirección: Laboratorio de Biología de Organis- mos, Centro de Ecología, IVIC. Apartado Postal 20632, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela. e-mail: [email protected] 894 0378-1844/11/12/894-06 $ 3.00/0 DEC 2011, VOL. 36 Nº 12 Description of the Locality band, which is connected in the external angle and The Mene de Inciarte Tar Pit is forms a continuous enamel located in Mara Municipality, near the band, interrupted in the me- Cachirí River at the base of the Sierra dial side. Close to the pos- de Perijá foothills, Zulia State, Venezue- tero-medial angle, the la (Figure 1). The area currently belongs enamel band of the lingual to the Caribeña Zuliana biogeographic side is slim. The wear sur- province (Linares, 1998). The local veg- face is worn obliquely, to etation is dominated by Byrsonima ~45º. crassifolia (Rincón, 2005). Logging as- The m1 (MBLUZ- sociated with cattle ranching has result- P-3.990, MBLUZ-P-5.896, ed in loss of most of the original prima- MBLUZ-P-4.690; Table I; ry deciduous forest surrounding Inciarte, Figure 2f) has an anteriorly and currenylt only a few tall trees can projected paraconid without be seen. enamel band; a metaconid Surface exposure of tar at Mene enamel band is present; me- de Inciarte extends ~1000m in NE-SW taentoconid fold shallow direction, with a maximum width of and reflected 45° anterome- 500m. The presence of Pleistocene ter- sialy; ento-hypoconid fold races developed along the margins of Figure 1. Geographic distribution of Mixotoxodon larensis in Central and deeper and less inclined the area indicates that the tar seep was South America. México: 1) Hihuitlán, Michoacan State; 2) La Estribera, (85°) anteromesialy than flooded at least once during the Pleisto- Veracruz State. Guatemala: 3) Santa Amelia River, Petén department. Hon- meta-entoconid fold; hypo- duras: 4) Yeroconte, Lempira department. 8) Orillas del Humuya, Comay- cene (Urbani and Galarraga, 1991). agua department. El Salvador: 5) Tomayate, San Salvador department; 6) conid buccolingually broad, This new fossil vertebrate as- Barranca del Sisimico, San Vicente department; 7) Hormiguero, San looks like a trigonid size; semblage was recovered from a test-pit Miguel department. Nicaragua: 9) El Bosque, Estalí department. Costa anterior facet of the trigonid excavation that includes 46 bird species Rica: 10) Bajo de los Barrantes, Alajuela province. Panamá: 11) Ocú, Her- convex; the lingual enamel (Steadman and Rincón, 2007); bats rera province. Colombia: 12) Chívolo, Magdalena department. Venezuela: band extends to the metaco- (Czaplewski et al., 2005); canids (Pre- 13) Mene de Inciarte in Zulia State; 14) Muaco, 15) Ocando, and 16) Cerro nid to the anterolingual side vosti and Rincón, 2007); saber tooth Misión, in Falcón State; 17) Agua Viva del Totumo; 18) San Miguel; and of the hypoconid, without 19) El Tocuyo in Lara State; 20) El Breal de Orocual, Monagas State. Bra- cats (Rincón, 2006); equids (Rincón et zil: 21) Juruá River, Acre State; 22) Araras/Periquitos Rondonia State. Bo- covering it totally; buccal al., 2006); armadillos, pampatheres, livia: 23) Cara Cara, Beni department. enamel fold deeper; buccal glyptodonts (Rincón et al., 2008); enamel band covering the ground sloths, camelids, mastodonts anteromesial protoconid (McDonald et al., 1999); and nine rodent Referred material (Figures 2a-h). MBLUZ- facet through posteromesial hypoconulid fac- species (Rincón, 2005). This fossil deposit P-3.990: right mandibular ramus with m1, et; hypoconid lingually projected; buccal was dated between 25.5 ±0.6 and 27.98 m2 and m3. MBLUZ-P-3.912: m1 lacks tri- enamel broader than lingual enamel. ±0.37KaBP by accelerator mass spectrome- gonid; left mandibular fragment with talonid The m2 paraconid try, using collagen extracted from Xenarthra of m3. MBLUZ-P-4.172: right mandibular (MBLUZ-P-3.990; Table I; Figure 2f) is not osteoderms (Jull et al., 2004). The fauna as- fragment with alveolus for p4 and p3. anteriorly projected and lacks a meta-entoco- semblage suggests that the environment dur- MBLUZ-P-4.690: left m1 preserving the nid fold; metaconid smaller than m1 metaco- ing deposition of the lower levels was a sa- posterior crescent, talonid. MBLUZ-P-5.896: nid and is covered by the lingual enamel vanna with isolated trees, while during de- left m1 with mandibular fragments. band, which is going to the anterobuccal
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