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Chapter 6: A Polydolopine Marsupial Skull from the Cachapoal Valley, Andean Main Range, Chile

2004; American Museum of Natural History; Volume: 285; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1206/0003-0090(2004)285 2.0.co;2

1937-3546

John J. Flynn, André R. Wyss,

Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

The Abanico (= Coya-Machalí) Formation of the Chilean Andes Cordillera continues to yield beautifully preserved fossil mammals of a variety of Cenozoic ages, with previously documented faunas spanning at least the Eocene to early Miocene. We describe here a new species of polydolopine marsupial, Polydolops mckennai, based on a skull preserving most of the upper dentition or alveoli. This, only the second polydolopid cranium known, provides important information on dental homologies and phylogeny for the group. The specimen on which this taxon is based is the first reported from new localities in the Río Cachapoal drainage. These localities appear to be early Oligocene or older in age (at least in part), expanding the geographic and temporal distribution of mammalian faunas from the Abanico Formation and bearing on models of the tectonic evolution of the central Chilean Andes.