Los marsupiales (Mammalia) del Mioceno Superior de la Formación Cerro Azul (Provincia de La Pampa, Argentina)

Abstract

We describe the most complete South American marsupial association of Huayquerian Age (late Miocene). Specimens were recovered from several new localities of central and northern La Pampa province (central Argentina), at levels assignable to Cerro Azul Fm.: Bajo Giuliani, Quehué, Telén, El Guanaco, and Laguna Chillhué. Loessoid sediments studied from this formation are indicative of lacustrine deposits overlaid by eolian levels bearing evidences of pedogenesis. A study of these levels at each one of the new localities led to their correlation in an integrated profile of Cerro Azul Fm. This formation corresponds to «Epecuén Fm.», at least in Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo, and probably also to the upper levels of Arroyo Chasicá Fm. The studied marsupials are representative of almost all major lineages (orders) of South American Neogene marsupials. The marmosine didelphid Zygolestes tatei sp. nov. differs from the type species of the genus in its larger size, unreduced third lower premolar, and in the less reduction of the metaconid in the last lower molar. Another marmosine, Thylamys pinei sp. nov., differs from other Marmosini in the twinning of the para- and metaconid in the lower molars, and in the wider talonid of the m4. The Monodelphini marmosines Thylatheridium hudsoni y T. dolgopolae are abundant in several localities of this formation; their study confirms close affinities between this genus and Monodelphis. The didelphines Hyperdidelphys pattersoni and an indeterminate species of Lutreolina are also represented by a few specimens. A mandibular fragment including part of the last molar may represent the oldest record of a Sparassocynidae in central Argentina. The Borhyaenidae and Thylacosmilidae (Sparassodonta) are also recorded by a few, fragmentary specimens. Pliolestes venetus sp. nov. (Paucituberculata, Caenolestidae) differs from the type species of the genus in its smaller size and in the larger, less displaced metaconid in the first lower molar. Microtragulus rusconii (Argirolagida, Argirolagidae) is generalized with respect to the other species of this genus in having a less reduced talonid in the m4, and shows closer affinities with M. catamarcensis than with M. reigi. Hyperdidelphys, Lutreolina, Thylatheridium, Achlysictis, and, probably Microtragulus, are common taxa with those of the Valle de Santa María and Puerta de Corral Quemado, in Catamarca province (northwestern Argentina). On the contrary, Pliolestes and Zygolestes constitute exclusive taxa of Cerro Azul Fm. for central Argentina during the Huayquerian Age. The marsupial association recovered from levels of Cerro Azul Fm. is the most abundantly recorded from Upper Miocene levels in South America. Its taxonomic composition confirms previous hypotheses on the important faunal turnover that happened in this continent, as a consequence of the environmental changes occurred since the medial Miocene.