Callistoe vincei Babot et al., 2002 is a Paleogene borhyaenoid known from exceptionally complete postcranial elements, which provides rare information about the anatomy and evolutionary history of metatherian predators during the South American Cenozoic. The axial skeleton of Callistoe is characterized by the peculiar transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae emphasizing lateral instead of sagittal traction. There is no clavicle and eighteen thoracolumbar vertebrae, of which only five are lumbars. The shoulder and elbow joints suggest movements restricted to parasagittal flexion ⁄ extension that are consistent with primarily terrestrial locomotion, as is also emphasized in Borhyaena tuberata and Lycopsis longirostrus. On the manus, the pollex is not reduced and the ungual phalanges indicate very long claws, similar to those observed in some extant digging taxa. This feature is unique to C. vincei among borhyaenoids. The knee joint is characterized by the presence of ossified patellae but shallow femoral trochleae. This joint suggests that the leg was nearly parasagittal, a position also inferred for Borhyaena. The astragalus shape is consistent with parasagittal flexion ⁄ extension, as in all Miocene-Pliocene borhyaenoids. The hind foot is characterized by reduced claws in comparison with the manus as well as the slenderness of the first and fifth digits, another peculiarity of C. vincei. The habitat of Callistoe was a temperate humid forest and according to the known fossil record, Callistoe was the largest mammalian predator of its time, sharing the predator ecological niche with crocodiles.

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Morphological, anatomical, and molecular techniques were used to characterize wild strawberry and wild strawberry-like species in northwest Argentina. Characteristics of leaves, flowers, runners, achenes, and genomic DNA polymorphisms were used to analyze similarities among Potentilla tucumanensis Castagnaro & Arias, Duchesnea indica (Andr.) Focke, and Fragaria vesca L. Comparison of phenograms obtained by using morphological and anatomical traits or genomic DNA characters revealed similar clustering of the species. Both phenograms suggest that D. indica is more closely related to P. tucumanensis than to F. vesca. Using the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique with specific primers, we detected polymorphic bands that permit the identification of P. tucumanensis, D. indica, and F. vesca. In addition, we report new morphological and anatomical characters that can be used as diagnostic traits for better identification of species in reproductive and vegetative states.Key words: Fragaria, Potentilla, Duchesnea, RAPD, DNA fingerprinting, morphological traits, anatomical traits.

The study of Paleogene mammals of intermediate and low latitudes has increased in the last decades and has been clearly demonstrated their importance in the comprehension of the evolution and faunistic changes outside

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