Fossil Record 24(1): 65-75, doi: 10.5194/fr-24-65-2021
Selenogonus narinoensis Stirton, 1947 (Tayassuidae, Cetartiodactyla, Mammalia): taxonomic status and paleobiogeographic implications
expand article infoGermán M. Gasparini‡, Oscar F. Moreno-Mancilla§, José L. Cómbita§
‡ División Paleontología Vertebrados, Unidades de Investigación Anexo Museo de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Calle 122 y 60, CP 1900, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina§ Grupo de Investigación Biología Evolutiva y Epistemológica BIEVEP y Fundación BIEVEP, Calle 9, 4B-26, 15001 Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia
© Germán M. Gasparini, Oscar F. Moreno-Mancilla, José L. Cómbita.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Gasparini GM, Moreno-Mancilla OF, Cómbita JL (2021) Selenogonus narinoensis Stirton, 1947 (Tayassuidae, Cetartiodactyla, Mammalia): taxonomic status and paleobiogeographic implications. Fossil Record 24(1): 65-75. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-65-2021
Open Access
Abstract

The species Selenogonus narinoensis was described by Stirton (1947) based on a singlespecimen which comes from sediments cropping out in the Cocha Verdelocality, Nariño Department (Colombia), tentatively referred to the latePliocene–Pleistocene (MGN 931; IGM p002118, Museo Geológico Nacional,Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Bogotá). However, morphologicalstudies and comparative morphometric observations of the specimen suggestthat (1) no diagnostic character supports the validity of the speciesSelenogonus narinoensis (here considered species inquirenda); (2) a combination of features (e.g., the mandibular condylelocated behind the posterior edge of the vertical mandibular ramus, theangular process which projects laterally outwards, a bunolophodont crownmorphology, a mesodont crown height, and a simple crown morphology of thethird lobe of m3) indicates it belongs to the genus Platygonus; (3) this specimencorresponds to one of the largest South American peccaries; (4) taking intoaccount certain anatomical characters as well as its morphometric range,this specimen is assigned to Platygonus cf. marplatensis. Even though the stratigraphic provenance ofthe specimen is still doubtful, it can be proposed that (1) it could be oneof the most ancient records of tayassuids in South America, as would beexpected given its geographical position, and (2) considering the new taxonomicproposal, this specimen represents the first record of Platygonus cf. marplatensis in Colombia andrepresents one of the northernmost South American records of the genus. Thisnew interpretation would be of great relevance in the Great American BioticInterchange due to its strategic geographical proximity to the Isthmus of Panama.