Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fortier, Daniel C
• Souza-Filho, Jonas P. De
• Guilherme, Edson
• Maciente, Andréa A. R
• Schultz, Cesar L

Titel

A New Specimen of Caiman brevirostris (Crocodylia, Alligatoridae) from the Late Miocene of Brazil

Ist Teil von

• Journal of vertebrate paleontology, 2014-07, Vol.34 (4), p.820-834

Ort / Verlag

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Caiman brevirostris was described based on the basis of late Miocene materials that included a rostral fragment and a right mandibular ramus, but photographs were not provided at that time. In this study, for the first time, we present the holotype materials of this species and a new specimen from the late Miocene of southwestern Amazonia, Brazil. The diagnosis was expanded, and a phylogenetic analysis was conducted. The results from the analysis consistently recover Caiman brevirostris within a clade that includes Caiman latirostris, Caiman cf. C. lutescens, and Melanosuchus. The oldest fossil record of the genus Caiman is from the Oligocene of southeastern Brazil, but these materials are regarded in this study as a nomen dubium due to the absence of any diagnostic features for the specimen. Thus, the oldest record considered valid by this study derives from the middle Miocene of Colombia and may represent the initial radiation of the genus.