Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:19:36.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two new records of Gomphotheriidae (Mammalia: Proboscidea) in southern México and some biogeographic implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Eduardo Corona-M  and
María Teresa Alberdi
Eduardo Corona-M
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Arqueozoología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Moneda 16, Col. Centro 06060, Distrito Federal, México,
María Teresa Alberdi
Affiliation:
Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, España,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two new records of gomphotheriid proboscideans, one identified as Rhynchotherium and the other as Cuvieronius, are reported in México. Both records are in the southwesternmost points of their known distributional range.

The remains of both genera consist of molars and tusks. Their measurements were compared with data available from the literature and collection specimens. The molar index of Rhynchotherium shows statistical differences between m2 and M2, and m3 and M3. However, differences between the m3 from both genera are not statistically significant, despite slight morphological differences.

This suggests that metric and morphological information should be included for a reliable identification of isolated molars and, if available, any other data of the associated tusk.

All known records relating to both genera suggest that they found southwestern México favorable for use as a dispersal corridor to South America, likely due to the region's tropical or subtropical climate. However, some distributional gaps in central México need to be resolved for Rhynchotherium. There are also important populations of Cuvieronius in central México, and preliminary information suggests that they occupied at least parts of eastern México, as well.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , March 2006 , pp. 357 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alberdi, M. T., Prado, J. L., and Cartelle, C. 2002. El registro de Stegomastodon (Mammalia, Gomphotheriidae) en el Pleistoceno superior de Brasil. Revista Española de Paleontología, 17(2):217–235.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H. 1927. Preliminary notice of a new proboscidean, Amebelodon fricki gen. et sp. nov. Bulletin Nebraska State Museum, 1:131–134.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H. 1929. Torynobelodon loomisi gen. et sp. nov. Bulletin Nebraska State Museum, 1:147–153.Google Scholar
Blumenbach, J. F. 1799. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte (sixth edition). Göttingen, 708 p.Google Scholar
Böese, E. 1905. Reseña acerca de la Geología de Chiapas y Tabasco. Boletín del Instituto Geológico, México, 20:1–116.Google Scholar
Borissiak, A. A. 1928. On a new mastodon from the Chokrak beds (Middle Miocene) of the Kuban region, Platybelodon danovi, n. gen. n. sp. Annuaire de la Societé Paléontologique de Russie, 7 1927 [1928] 105–120. (In Russian with English summary) Google Scholar
Burmeister, H. 1837. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. Abtheilung I and II. Berlin, 795 p.Google Scholar
Burnett, G. T. 1829. Illustrations of the Quadrupeda, or quadrupeds, being the arrangement of the true four-footed beasts indicated in outline. Quarterly Journal of Science, London, July to December, p. 336–353.Google Scholar
Cabrera, A. 1929. Una revisión de los Mastodontes Argentinos. Revista del Museo de la Plata, 32:61–144.Google Scholar
Carbot, G. F., and Montellano-Ballesteros, M. 2002. Presencia de Cuvieronius en Chiapas, México. VIII Congreso Nacional de Paleontología, Guadalajara, México, Libro de Resúmenes, 1:38.Google Scholar
Carranza-Castañeda, O. 1976. Rhynchotherium falconeri del Rancho La Goleta, Michoacán, México. III Congreso Latinoamericano de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geología, Memorias, 3:28.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1884. The extinct Mammalia of the Valley of Mexico. American Philosophical Society Proceedings, 22:1–23.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1886. Report on the coal deposits near Zacualtipán in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. American Naturalist, 23:146–151.Google Scholar
Corona, M.E., García, L., and Piña, E. 2000. Registro de un gonfoterio en Nexpa, Morelos. VII Congreso Nacional de Paleontología y I Simposio Geológico en el Noreste de México, Linares, Nuevo León, Libro de Resúmenes, 1:94.Google Scholar
Corona, M.E., Quiróz-Moreno, J. A., Jiménez-García, E., and Montes-Guerrero, M. T. 1999. Rescate de un mastodonte en San Juan Unión, Municipio de Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero. Arqueología, 21:5–10.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W., and Mooser, O. 1980. Late Hemphillian mammals of the Ocote local fauna, Guanajuato, México. Texas Memorial Museum, Pearce-Sellards series, 32:1–25.Google Scholar
del Castillo, A. 1869. Fossil mammals from the Quaternary formation of the Valley of Mexico. Deutsche Geologie Gessellschoff Zeitsch, 21:479–482.Google Scholar
Dudley, J. P. 1996. Mammoths, gomphotheres and the Great American Faunal Interchange, p. 289–295. In Shoshani, J. and Tassy, P. (eds.), The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and their Relatives. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Eaton, G. F. 1905. Occurrence of Mastodon humboldtii in northern Mexico. American Journal of Science, fourth series, 4:330.Google Scholar
Falconer, H. 1868. Paleontological Memoirs and Notes of the late Hugh Falconer, with a Biological Sketch of the Author (ed. Murchinson, C.). Volume 2. Hardwicke, London, 675 p.Google Scholar
Felix, J., and Lenk, H. 1891. Beiträge zur Geologie und Paläontologie der Republik Mexiko. Palaeontographica B, 37:117–210.Google Scholar
Freudenberg, W. 1922. Die Säugetier Fauna des Pliocäns und Postpliocäns von Mexiko. II. Mastodonten und Elefanten. Geologische und Paläontogische Abhandlungen, 14:103–176.Google Scholar
Frick, C. 1933. New remains of trilophodont-tetrabelodon mastodons. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 59:505–652.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 1986. Teeth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 376 p.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York, 443 p.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. D. 1996. The biogeography of the gomphotheriid proboscideans of North America, p. 143–148. In Shoshani, J. and Tassy, P. (eds.), The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and their Relatives. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lucas, S. G., and González-León, C. M. 1997. Cuvieronius (Mammalia, Proboscidea) de Oquitoa, Sonora. Geología del Noroeste, 2(1):12–13.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. 2000. Middle Pleistocene climate change recorded in fossil mammal teeth from Tarija, Bolivia and upper limit of the Ensenadan Land-mammal age. Quaternary Research, 54:121–131.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E. 1980. The Late Pliocene Las Tunas local fauna from southernmost Baja California, Mexico. Journal of Paleontology, 54(4):762–805.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E. 1990. A Rhynchotherium skull and mandible from southeastern Arizona. Brigham Young University Geology Studies, 36:57–67.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E., and Carranza-Castañeda, O. 1984. Late Cenozoic mammals from Central Mexico. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 4(2):216–236.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E., and Carranza-Castañeda, O. 2002. Importance of Mexico's late Tertiary mammalian faunas, p. 83–102. In Montellano-Ballesteros, M. and Arroyo-Cabrales, J. (eds.), Avances en los estudios paleo-mastozoológicos en México. Col Científica. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México.Google Scholar
Montellano-Ballesteros, M. 2002. New Cuvieronius finds from the Pleistocene of Central Mexico. Journal of Paleontology, 76(3):578–583.Google Scholar
Ochoterena, H., and Silva-Bárcena, A. 1970. Cuvieronius arellanoi, sp. n., mastodonte del Pleistoceno del Estado de Oaxaca. Paleontología Mexicana, 33:1–25.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1921. The evolution, phylogeny and classification of the Proboscidea. American Museum Novitates, 1:1–15.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1923. New subfamily, generic and specific stages in the evolution of the Proboscidea. American Museum Novitates, 99:1–4.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1936. Proboscidea. A Monograph of the Discovery, Evolution, Migration and Extinction of the Mastodonts and Elephants of the World. I. Moeritherioidea, Deinotherioidea, Mastodontoidea. The American Museum Press, New York, 802 p.Google Scholar
Pichardo del Barrio, M. 1960. Proboscídeos fósiles de México. Una revisión. Boletín del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 4:1–63.Google Scholar
Pohlig, H. 1912. Sur une vieille mandibule de “Tetracaulodon ohioticum” Blum., avec défense in situ. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie, 26:187–193.Google Scholar
Polaco, O. J., Rojas, C., and González, A. H. 2002. Una nueva fauna pleistocénica de la Península de Yucatán, México. VIII Congreso Nacional de Paleontología, Guadalajara, México, Libro de Resúmenes, 1:73.Google Scholar
Prado, J. L., Alberdi, M. T., Sánchez, B., and Azanza, B. 2003. Diversity of the Pleistocene Gomphotheres (Gomphotheriidae, Proboscidea) from South America. Deinsea, 9:347–363.Google Scholar
Sánchez, B., Prado, J. L., and Alberdi, M. T. 2004. Feeding ecology, dispersal, and extinction of South American Pleistocene gomphotheres (Gomphotheriidae, Proboscidea). Paleobiology, 30(1):146–161.Google Scholar
Shaw, C. A. 1981. The middle Pleistocene El Golfo local fauna from northwest Sonora, Mexico. Unpublished , , 141 p.Google Scholar
Shoshani, J. 1996. Para- or monophyly of the gomphotheres and their position within Proboscidea, p. 149–177. In Shoshani, J. and Tassy, P. (eds.), The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and their Relatives. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H., Skinner, M. F., Fields, R. W., Rensberger, J. M., Whistler, D. P., Galusha, T., Taylor, B. E., Macdonald, J. R., and Webb, S. D. 1987. Faunal succession and biochronology of the Arikareean through Hemphillian interval (late Oligocene through earliest Pliocene epochs) in North America, p. 153–210. In Woodburne, M. O. (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Tobien, H. 1973. On the evolution of mastodonts (Proboscidea, Mammalia), Pt. I, The Bunodont Trilophodont Groups. Notizblatt des Hessischen Landesamtes für bodenforshung zu Wiesbaden, 101:202–276.Google Scholar
von Meyer, H. 1840. Uber uhde's sommling Mexikanishen antiquitaten, mineraliend und petrefakten. Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Geologie und Palöntologie, 1840:576–587.Google Scholar
Webb, S. D., and Perrigo, S. C. 1984. Late Cenozoic vertebrates from Honduras and El Salvador. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 4(2):237–254.Google Scholar