Taxonomic status of Mus talpinus Lund (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae) from the Quaternary deposits of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brazil and its paleoenvironmental meaning

Abstract

Mus talpinus, a fossil sigmodontine rodent exhumated by P. W. Lund from Quaternary deposits in the Lagoa Santa area, Brazil, has been varyingly allocated to the genera Oxymycterus, Blarinomys or Juscelinomys. After our examination of the holotype, an anterior fragment of the skull from Lapa da Serra das Abelhas, Minas Gerais, Brazil, we refer the name talpinus to the genus Brucepattersonius. These mice are sylvan akodontines, widespread in the Atlantic Forest, with the nearest extant record approximately 250 km southeast of Lagoa Santa. The addition of Brucepattersonius to the fossil sigmodontine fauna of Lagoa Santa suggests a non-analogous assemblage of species in this area during the Late Pleistocene.