The phylogenetic and biostratigraphic significance of new armadillos (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Dasypodidae, Euphractinae) from the Tinguirirican (early oligocene) of Chile

New Early Eocene Mammalian Fauna from Western Patagonia, Argentina

“…nov. Figure 5F Also from La Barda and Laguna Fría are several isolated plates of the dorsal carapace of this small dasypodid of similar size to the living Dasypus hybridus or D. septencinctus. The osteoderms are thicker than in other astegotheriins from the same locality, with a more wrinkled surface; lageniform central figure in the movable plates, as in S. chubutana from the Casamayoran (Barrancan subage, Carlini et al 2002b), but differs from the latter by having fewer and more symmetrically placed foramina on their surface. The central keel of the exposed surface is better defined, with scarce but relatively large foramina on the posterior margin, having a relatively large one at the junction of a proximal sulcus with the external edge of the plate.…”

“…The faunal differences are also remarkable with respect to the Vacan subage, where the first Euphractinae are recorded, together with a lower diversity of Astegotheriini with more advanced taxa. These differences with respect to the Casamayoran faunas (Carlini et al, 2002b(Carlini et al, , 2002c, as well as the presence of a new species of Riostegotherium (a genus until now only present in the Itaboraian of Brazil) and, with the youngest record in Paso del Sapo, a new species of Stegosimpsonia and another new species of Astegotherium, all of which are more primitive than the Casamayoran species, certainly suggests an older age for the sediments of Laguna Fría and La Barda (Carlini et al, 2002a). In addition, the diversity of Astegotheriini indicates a warmer and more humid paleoenvironment than that inferred for the Casamayoran.…”

Oldest cingulate skulls provide congruence between morphological and molecular scenarios of armadillo evolution

“…Kuntinaru from Salla constitutes the unique referral to Tolypeutinae from this period. Conversely, referrals to the Euphractinae and the Glyptodontoidea are known in various Oligocene localities [7,30,31], and are even registered in the Late Eocene Mustersan and Casamayoran SALMA [7,9,32,33]. Moreover, the Glyptodontoidea may be present as early as the Late Palaeocene, as tarsal remains from the Brazilian locality of Itaborai have been referred (although with doubts) to the group [34].…”

New Paleogene Notohippids and Leontiniids (Toxodontia; Notoungulata; Mammalia) from the Early Oligocene Tinguiririca Fauna of the Andean Main Range, Central Chile

“…The Tinguirirican is currently regarded as temporally interposed between the Mustersan (late Eocene) and Deseadan (late Oligocene-early Miocene) intervals of the classical SALMA sequence, given that the Divisaderan, originally considered to precede the Tinguirirican, has recently been shown to be invalid as it represented a mixed assemblage of demonstrably older (mainly Casamayoran) and younger (Deseadan to Santacrucian) taxa (Cerdeño et al, 2008;López, 2008López, , 2010López and Manassero, 2008). Following a preliminary accounting (Wyss et al, 1994), various components of the Tinguiririca Fauna have been described in detail elsewhere, including its marsupials (Flynn and Wyss, 1999), interatheriids (Hitz et al, 2000(Hitz et al, , 2006, archaeohyracids Reguero et al, 2003), tardigrades (McKenna et al, 2006), dasypodids (Carlini et al, 2009), rodents (Bertrand et al, 2012), and notostylopids and basal toxodontians (Bradham et al, 2015). Here we build on this documentation, describing the fauna's diverse but sparsely represented notohippids and leontiniids.…”