A new fossil canid assemblage from the late Pleistocene of northern South America: the canids of the Inciarte asphalt pit (Zulia, Venezuela), fossil record and biogeography

Abstract

Canids invaded South American during the Pliocene (2.8-3.1 Ma BP) as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange, but it is not until the Pleistocene that their record in the continent becomes well known. However, even the Pleistocene record of the group is patchy and biased, with few records for the northern part of South America.In this paper we describe a new assemblage of canids found at the Inciarte tar pits (Zulia, Venezuela). These remains are associated with a variety of extinct Pleistocene mammals dated between 25-27 Ka BP. Canids in this assemblage include Protocyon troglodytes (Lund, 1838), Protocyon sp., Canis dirus Leidy, 1858, Urocyon cinereoargenteus (Schreber, 1775) and an indeterminate canid. This is the first record of Urocyon Baird, 1758 (and U. cinereoargenteus) from the Late Pleistocene in South America and constrains the timing of its dispersal. The distributional record of Protocyon Giebel, 1855 and P. troglodytes is expanded 1500 km north, of previous records and and constitutes the first record of these taxa in Venezuela. The presence of C. dirus at Inciarte constitutes the fourth locality for this species in South America.