Pucatherium parvum Herrera, Powell

Ciancio, Martín R., Herrera, Claudia, Aramayo, Alejandro, Payrola, Patricio & Babot, Judith, 2016, Diversity of cingulate xenarthrans in the middle-late Eocene of Northwestern Argentina, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61 (3), pp. 575-590 : 583-584

Pucatherium parvum Herrera, Powell , and del Papa, 2012 (justified emendation, see below)

Fig. 6A–O .

Nomenclatural comment: The original spelling of the epithet of this species ( parvus ) is incorrect and should be emended into parvum , in accordance with Article 32.5 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Thus a “justified emendation” (Article 33.2.2) is introduced in this work.

Material. —Osteoderms of the dorsal shield: MHAS 068– 072, PVL 6424, 6400, 6401, MLP 86-V-6-24, 86-V-6-25, 88-V-10-19, and 93-IV-1-17, from Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca Province, middle member of Geste Formation sensu Alonso 1992); MLP 81-XI-15-3, from Quebrada El Paso, near Pozuelos salt flat, Los Andes Department, Salta Province, Argentina; middle member of Geste Formation sensu Alonso 1992); PVL 6398, from Vicinities of Laguna and Casa Grande rivers,SE of Sierra Aguilar, Jujuy Province, Argentina; Casa Grande Formation.

Description. — Dasypodidae defined by the unique combination of the following characters: from the evidence until now, the dorsal shield was constituted only of movable osteoderms with different degrees of superposition. Osteoderms very small, anterior articular external surface with three, or less frequently two, well-developed longitudinal crests, separated by deep grooves; free posterior external area of movable osteoderms irregular and slightly wrinkled, showing a roughly rectangular main central figure with rounded anterior and posterior portions, reaching the posterior edge of the osteoderm. Lateral grooves of central figure not well-developed with five to seven small perforations each; scarce and small foramina on the lateral and posterior edges of movable osteoderms. Posterior edge of the internal face of the osteoderm with or without short longitudinal elevations and grooves.

Remarks.— Pucatherium parvum is a basal Dasypodidae

Herrera 2013) collected in several Paleogene localities from Northwestern Argentina (see SOM). This wide stratigraphic distribution allowed the correlation of these sedimentary units and the assignation of these levels to a Barrancan subage (Casamayoran SALMA; middle Eocene), based on a U/Pb dating of 39.9 Ma obtained from the top of Lumbrera Formation (del Papa et al. 2010; Powell et al. 2011). However, this faunistic correlation based only in one taxon should be contrasted with additional information derived from stratigraphical and evolutionary data of other mammalian taxa and other sources of information.

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Middle–late Eocene of Argentina. Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca Province and Quebrada El Paso, near Pozuelos salt flat, Los Andes Department, Salta Province; middle member of Geste Formation (sensu Alonso 1992). Juramento River, La Viña Department, Salta Province; upper section of Lumbrera Formation. Cerro Tin Tin, Cachi Department, Salta Province; Quebrada de los Colorados Formation. Vicinities of Laguna and Casa Grande rivers, south of Aguilar, Jujuy Province; Casa Grande Formation (see Powell et al. 2011 and Herrera et al. 2012).

Genus Punatherium nov.

Type species: Punatherium catamarcensis gen. et sp. nov., monotypic, see below.

Etymology: In reference to the Puna, the South American ecoregion, where the type locality is located; and from the Latin therion, beast; a common generic suffix for xenarthran taxa.

Diagnosis.—As for the type species by monotypy.

Figures

Fig. 6. Osteoderms of Dasypodidae incertae sedis from the middle member of the Geste Formation, middle–late Eocene, Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca Province, Argentina. A–O. Pucatherium parvum MLP 93-VI-1-17 (A–F), MLP 88-V-10-19 (G–O). P, Q. Punatherium catamarquensis gen. et sp. nov., holotype, fixed osteoderm, MLP 93-VI-1-18 (P) and paratype, semimovable osteoderm, MLP 86-V-6-24 (Q). Photographs (A1−Q1), line drawings (A2−Q2).