A new species of Gashternia (Marsupialia) from Itaborai (Brazil)

Abstract

We describe Gashternia carioca sp. nov. (Marsupialia, Polydolopimorphia, Bonapartheriiformes, Bonapartherioidea, Gashterniidae), from Late Paleocene levels (Itaboraian Age) of São José de Itaboraí, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It differs from the type species of the genus, G. ctalehor Simpson, in being slightly smaller and in having a proportionally larger P3. The new species constitutes the first record of a gashterniid polydolopimorphian in Brazil. In comparable parts, it differs slightly from still undescribed specimens from the Las Flores Formation, in central Patagonia; this adds new evidence on the contemporaneity of the Itaboraí and the Las Flores faunas.