Sixty years after ‘The mastodonts of Brazil’: The state of the art of South American proboscideans (Proboscidea, Gomphotheriidae)

• Autores: Mothé, Dimila; dos Santos Avilla, Leonardo; Asevedo, Lidiane; Borges Silva, Leon; Rosas, Mariane; Labarca Encina, Rafael; Souberlich, Ricardo; Soibelzon, Esteban; Roman Carrion, José Luis; Ríos, Sergio Daniel; Rincon, Ascanio D.; de Oliveira, Gina Cardoso; Lopes, Renato Pereira
• Año de publicación: 2017
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Cuvieronius; Extinction; Notiomastodon; Paleoecology; Proboscidea; Taxonomy
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Studies on South American Gomphotheriidae started around 210 years ago and, 150 years later, the classic study "The mastodonts of Brazil" by Simpson and Paula Couto (1957) attempted to clarify the complex issues related to our understanding of these proboscideans. Here, we update state of knowledge regarding proboscideans in South America subsequent to the publication of Simpson and Paula Couto (1957). The taxonomy of South American proboscideans is now stable and two species are recognized, Notiomastodon platensis and Cuvieronius hyodon. The former had a wide distribution in South America (from lowlands to highlands and from east to west coasts), while the latter was restricted to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Although records of Notiomastodon are abundant and occur in almost overlapping geographic distribution with Cuvieronius, they have never been recorded in the same locality. Here, we evaluated over 500 South American localities with proboscidean remains, although only cranial and dental specimens show recognizable diagnostic features. As both proboscideans in South America had a generalist-opportunist alimentary strategy, a competitive exclusion probably precluded their sympatry. Their origin is most probably related to independent migrations from Central America during the Great American Biotic Interchange. They are not sister-taxa - Cuvieronius hyodon is sister-taxon of Rhynchotherium, and this clade is closer to Notiomastodon platensis than to the other proboscideans, supporting the hypothesis of independent origins. Notiomastodon platensis has a continuous record from the Early Pleistocene to Early Holocene, when it became extinct, probably due to synergy of human impact and climatic changes during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. In contrast, extinction of Cuvieronius hyodon happened much earlier, and it was not related to the terminal Pleistocene event that lead the extinction of selected megafauna in South America, including Notiomastodon.
Fil: Mothé, Dimila. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil
Fil: dos Santos Avilla, Leonardo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil
Fil: Asevedo, Lidiane. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso; Brasil
Fil: Borges Silva, Leon. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil
Fil: Rosas, Mariane. Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia; Brasil
Fil: Labarca Encina, Rafael. Universidad Austral de Chile; Chile
Fil: Souberlich, Ricardo. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; Paraguay
Fil: Soibelzon, Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; Argentina
Fil: Roman Carrion, José Luis. Museo de Historia Natural “Gustavo Orcés V."; Ecuador
Fil: Ríos, Sergio Daniel. Secretaria Nacional de Cultura; Paraguay
Fil: Rincon, Ascanio D.. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas; Venezuela
Fil: de Oliveira, Gina Cardoso. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; Brasil
Fil: Lopes, Renato Pereira. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; Brasil