During the Pleistocene a fauna composed of large (biomass > 44 kg) and giant mammals (biomass > 1000 kg) that are usually associated with open environments lived in the Brazilian Intertropical Region. We present here new information concerning the paleoecology and chronology of some species of this megafauna. Carbon isotope analyses were performed for a better understanding of the paleoecology of the species Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842), Notiomastodon platensis (Ameghino, 1888) and Toxodon platensis (Owen, 1849). The δ13C data allow attributing a generalist diet to these species, which varied according to the kind of habitat in which they lived. In more open habitats all species were grazers; in mixed habitats E. laurillardi and T. platensis were mixed feeders, and N. platensis was grazer; and in more closed habitats all species were mixed feeders.

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LATE PLEISTOCENE MEGAFAUNA FROM SERGIPE, BRAZIL: TAXONOMIC AND CHRONOLOGICAL RECORDS. The Sergipe State is included in the Intertropical Region of Brazil (= IRB), and its fauna of large (biomass > 44 kg) and megamammals (biomass > 1000 kg) is still unknown. This paper reports three taxa for Fazenda Charco locality: Toxodon platensis Owen, Smilodon populator Lund, and Pachyarmatherium brasiliense Porpino, Fernicola & Bergqvist; the latter constitutes the first record for this northeastern state of Brazil. Ages for the three faunal localities (Fazenda Elefante, Gararu Municipality; Fazenda Charco and Fazenda São José, Poço Redondo Municipality) are estimated between 50,000 and 38,000 years BP, and this period of time includes two different climates. Finally, the present authors are engaged in an ongoing project to elucidate in more detail the ecology of the species found in the IRB.

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Isotopes are one of the best tools to reconstruct the paleoecology of extinct taxa, allowing us to evaluate their diet (through carbon; C 3 and C 4 plants), their niche breadth (B A ) and the environment in which they lived. In the present work we go deeper in the use of isotopes, and explore a mathematical mixing model with the stable isotopic composition of one (carbon) and two elements (carbon and oxygen) to evaluate (i) the relative contributions of three types of food resources (leaves, fruits and C 4 grass) for meso-and megaherbivores (body mass > 100 kg) that lived during the late Pleistocene in Sergipe, Brasil, and (ii) which of these herbivores (together with some faunivorous taxa) could be potential preys for Smilodon populator and Caiman latirostris. Finally, we reconstructed the paleoenvironment in which the vertebrate community of Sergipe lived and concluded that the environment of Sergipe was a closer and drier landscape than African savannah nowadays, at least between 27 ka to 11 ka.

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