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Identification of Type Specimens of Dasypodidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra) of the Paleogene of Argentina

2008; Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia e Instituto Nacional de Investigación de las Ciencias Naturales; Linguagem: Inglês

10.22179/revmacn.10.279

1853-0400

Martín R. Ciancio, Alfredo A. Carlini,

Primate Behavior and Ecology

Identification of Type Specimens of Dasypodidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra) of the Paleogene of Argentina. The first collections of Dasipodids of the Paleogene of Argentina were made by Carlos Ameghino in Patagonia. These remains were studied later by his brother Florentino, who described 45 species of Dasipododids distributed in the successive associations that form the first known mammalian faunas: 19 for the Notostylopeén (Casamayoran), 9 for the Astraponoteén (Mustersan) and 17 for the Pyrothéréen (Deseadan). With the aim of studying the diversity of Dasipodids of the Lower Tertiary, the main and immediate reference to wich we have to access to, is the collection of fossils of Ameghino. Nowadays it is a part of the numerous vertebrate collections of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (MACN) “Bernardino Rivadavia”. In the original publications of Ameghino, there is no reference to any collection number belonging to the described species and it was long after he described them, that the specimens were deposited in the MACN. When we started studying the type specimens we found that some of them were missing, including those mentioned by other authors. However, after checking out every single specimen of Dasypodidae of Ameghino Collection of MACN, we have identified some remains corresponding to the ones that Ameghino used to describe his species, hence, the types. In this work, we bring to light the specimen types of Dasypodidae that have been identified and until now, were not known as such, or were considered lost. The information about the geographical and stratigraphic origin of the remains was actualized.