Researchers at Case Western Reserve University together with ii other universities accept discovered the 13-million-year-old fossils of a twosome of novel species of extinct hoofed mammals known equally "litopterns" from a site inward Bolivia.
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| The animals, which hold back like to minor moose or deer inward a paleoartist's rendering, are beingness dubbed Theosodon arozquetai together with Llullataruca shockeyi, ungulates native exclusively to Republic of Bolivia [Credit: Velizar Simeonovski] |
The discoveries, announced inward the June edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, are of import non exclusively because they document ii species previously unknown to science, only too because they come upwardly from the tropical latitudes of South America. The northern one-half of South America harbors a rich diverseness of living mammals, only is a hard house to honor fossils of them.
"Studying fossils from regions such equally Bolivia, where few others accept looked, has allowed us uncovering together with clit a variety of novel species that are changing our views nearly the history of South America's mammals," said Darin Croft, a biological scientific discipline professor at Case Western Reserve, who co-led the expeditions that recovered the fossils.
The Pb writer on the magazine publication was 1 of Croft's one-time students, Case Western Reserve graduate Andrew McGrath, who is instantly studying this grouping of animals for his PhD at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
"These novel species hint at what mightiness endure hiding inward the northern parts of South America," McGrath said. "For example, unopen relatives of Llullataruca disappeared from southern South America around 20 1 chiliad one thousand years ago, only based on our research, nosotros instantly know they were able to persist some 7 1 chiliad one thousand years longer inward Republic of Bolivia together with northern South America than inward Patagonia."
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| Artist Velizar Simeonovski’s interpretation of Borhyaena tuberata, an extinct meat-eating marsupial that was nearly the size of a clouded leopard that lived during the early on Miocene (about xviii 1 chiliad one thousand years ago) inward southern Argentina [Credit: Case Western Reserve University] |
Croft, who has a master copy twenty-four lx minutes menstruum of the month inward anatomy at the School of Medicine, is considered 1 of the world's leaders inward neotropical paleomammalogy, the written report of South America's prehistoric mammals. Since South America was geographically isolated for most of the yesteryear 66 1 chiliad one thousand years, its rich fossil tape makes it a perfect place to "investigate topics such equally mammal adaptation, diversification, together with community ecology," according to his website.
Some of that run was covered inward his 2016 mass alongside Chicago-based creative individual Velizar Simeonovski, Horned Armadillos together with Rafting Monkeys: The Fascinating Fossil Mammals of South America, which received an Independent Publisher Book Awards gilded medal inward scientific discipline inward 2017.
"South America was untouched yesteryear mammals from other continents for millions of years, then the solutions its native mammals came upwardly alongside were oft dissimilar from those developed yesteryear mammals elsewhere," he said. "By comparison how mammals on dissimilar continents accept evolved to bargain alongside like ecological situations, nosotros are able to guess which characteristics developed due to universal ecological principles together with which were peculiar to a certainly house together with time."
Recently, Croft together with collaborators explored that inquiry yesteryear excavation farther into the mysteries of how some xi species of mammals known equally "sparassodonts"-extinct weasel-to-jaguar-sized meat-eating marsupials-were able to co-exist during the early on Miocene (about xviii 1 chiliad one thousand years ago) inward southern Argentina.
The inquiry has left Croft together with others wrestling alongside what he calls a "carnivore conundrum."
In short, they are beingness challenged yesteryear findings that propose that either all ancient carnivorous sparassodonts were crammed into a really narrow meat-eating niche (think mount lion)--or some were genuinely omnivores (think raccoon), only had teeth that did non reverberate their varied diet.
That scenario "would challenge a key regulation of paleoecological reconstruction," Croft said inward a recent spider web log post service summarizing what was detailed extensively inward a newspaper before this year. "Could it endure that their teeth are leading us astray?"
Source: Case Western Reserve University [June 27, 2018]
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