Abstract
The fossil record of carnivorous mammals in Uruguay is scarce and fragmentary, but informative. In the present contribution, two new records of canids allocated in sediments of the Dolores Formation (late Pleistocene-early Holocene) are described. These records, based on their anatomical-comparative study and multivariate analysis, correspond to two foxes: one of medium size, Cerdocyon thous, conforms to the first record of this taxon in the country, meanwhile the other one, of larger size, is referred to Dusicyon avus and is the first fossil record of this animal in the south of the territory and the second record in the whole country. Until now, the only carnivorous mammals registered in this formation were the hunters of large herbivores (Arctotherium sp. and Smilodon populator). In this way, these discoveries complement and expand the set of placental mammals with a carnivorous diet for this unit, particularly with the capacity to predate over small- and medium-size mammals.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the following: D. Brandoni, L. Avilla, and M. Castro for the invitation to collaborate in this volume; editor-in- chief J.R. Wible for improvements to the manuscript; Carlos Larrama for collecting and donating the material of Dusicyon avus to the Colección de Vertebrados Fósiles de la Facultad de Ciencias (UdelaR); Alejandra Rojas (FC-DPV), Melitta Meneghel (ZVC-M), and Enrique González (MNHN) for permitting access and study of the fossil remains and comparative materials in the collection under their care; Pablo Toriño for his helpful comments and suggestions about the use of PAST Versión 2.09; Felipe Montenegro for providing important bibliographic material. The pictures of the El Caño locality are courtesy of Proyecto Cooperación España-Uruguay 2008 (J. Rodríguez and A. Rinderknecht). Two anonymous reviewers significantly improved the original manuscript. This paper is a contribution to ANII project POS_NAC_2014_1_102656 (A. Manzuetti) and CSIC-UdelaR project 211-348 (M. Ubilla).
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Manzuetti, A., Perea, D., Rinderknecht, A. et al. New Canid Remains from Dolores Formation, late Pleistocene-early Holocene, Uruguay. J Mammal Evol 25, 391–396 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-017-9387-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-017-9387-8