The Allemann collection from the Santa Cruz Formation (late early Miocene), Argentina, in Zurich, Switzerland
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REGULAR RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Allemann collection from the Santa Cruz Formation (late early Miocene), Argentina, in Zurich, Switzerland Daniel Zurita-Altamirano1 • Eric Buffetaut2,3 • Analı´a M. Forasiepi4 • Alejandro Kramarz5 • Juan D. Carrillo6,7 • Gabriel Aguirre-Ferna´ndez1 • Alfredo A. Carlini8 • Torsten M. Scheyer1 Marcelo R. Sa´nchez-Villagra1
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Received: 27 September 2018 / Accepted: 4 February 2019 Ó Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz (SCNAT) 2019
Abstract One of the best-known faunal assemblages that characterizes the past ecosystems from South America comes from the Santa Cruz Formation in Argentina. This assemblage is formed by an endemic fauna, which included ground sloths, glyptodonts, native ungulates, terror birds (phorusrhacids), among others. The Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age is dated 18.0–15.6 Ma, late early Miocene. Current curatorial efforts revealed a large collection of over 1100 fossil remains from the Santa Cruz Formation, donated in 2007 to the Paleontological Museum, University of Zurich, Switzerland. The fossils were brought to Switzerland in the late 1880s by Theodor Allemann, an engineer and amateur collector. The collection includes skulls, isolated teeth, mandibles, and isolated postcranial elements. Postcranials are mainly represented by astragali, calcanei, and osteoderms. The study of the remains allowed us to recognize 20 families of mammals, one of birds, and one of amphibians: Abderitidae, Palaeothentidae (Paucituberculata); Hathliacynidae (Sparassodonta); Dasypodidae, Peltephilidae, and Glyptodontidae (Cingulata); Megatheriidae and Megalonychidae (Tardigrada); Astrapotheriidae (Astrapotheria), Protherotheriidae and Macraucheniidae (Litopterna); Toxodontidae, Homalodotheriidae, Hegetotheriidae and Interatheriidae (Notoungulata); Dasyproctidae, Dinomyidae, Neoepiblemidae, Chinchillidae, Erethizontidae, Echimyidae and Eocardidae (Rodentia); Phorusrhacidae (Cariamiformes); and Calyptocephalellidae (Anura). Among them, we identified 28 genera and 9 species. Reference to the previous work on the Santa Cruz fauna and the good preservation of the material allow us to achieve taxonomic resolution in the identifications. We discuss the potential usefulness of this collection for studying the paleobiology of specimens/species of this fauna. Keywords Mammalia Aves Anura Miocene Patagonia South America Resumen Durante largos perı´odos del Cenozoico, Ame´rica del Sur estuvo aislada de otros continentes y fue el hogar de una fauna ende´mica que incluı´a perezosos gigantes, gliptodontes y aves del terror (fororra´cidos), entre otros. Uno de los conjuntos faunı´sticos ma´s importantes que caracterizan a estos ecosistemas del pasado proviene de la Formacio´n Santa Cruz (Edad Mamı´fero de Ame´rica del Sur Santacrucense, 18.0–15.6 Ma, finales del Mioceno temprano. Los esfuerzos curatoriales recientes revelaron una gran coleccio´n (ma´s de 1100 restos) de fo´siles de la Formacio´n Santa Cruz, donada por el Museo de Hist
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