The Tayassuidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from the Quaternary of Entre Rios Province. A palaeofaunal review in Argentina

Abstract

The Tayassuidae has a wide geographic distribution and stratigraphie record during the Quaternary of South America. Three genera of Tayassuidae (Platygonus, Catagonus and Tayassu) are recognized in this continent. Argentina has the greatest diversity and abundance of fossil tayassuids in South America. In the Argentine Mesopotamian, the oldest tayassuid records are from the late Pleistocene of Corrientes and Entre Rios provinces, and from an archaeological site in the Holocene of Misiones Province. This paper aims to: 1) describe the tayassuid materials found in the Pleistocene in Entre Rios Province; 2) review and update the palaeontological record of the family in the Mesopotamian region during the Quaternary; and 3) check the geographic and stratigraphic distribution in South America, specially in Argentina, of the tayassuids from the Mesopotamian region. The palaeontological evidence indicates that in this area, Tayassu and Catagonus, the latter for the first time, are registered only in late Pleistocene sediments. Furthermore, the record of Tayassu and Catagonus during the late Pleistocene in Entre Ríos Province reflects a faunistic difference in comparison with the extant mammal fauna. Today, in the Mesopotamian region, T. pecari and T. tajacu are part of the mammalian fauna of Misiones Province. In the north of Corrientes Province there is possibly the most austral record of T. pecari. Catagonus reaches its most southern distribution in the north of Santiago del Estero and the northeast of Tucumán; therefore at present this tayassuid does not inhabit the Argentine Mesopotamian.