This study contributes to the knowledge of continental fishes recovered from sedimentary successions corresponding to the Bonaerean Stage/Age (late mid-Pleistocene) in the locality of Centinela del ...Mar, General Alvarado County, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. At this site we describe fossil fishes from a palaeolagoon, including Corydoras sp., Pimelodella sp., Rhamdia sp., Oligosarcus sp., small undetermined characids, Jenynsia sp. and Odontesthes sp. The recovered ichthyofaunal assemblage comprises at least seven taxa of Paranaean lineage. The taxonomic composition of the palaeoichthyofauna is quite comparable to that presently found in Bonaerean Watercourses of the Atlantic Drainage ecoregion. This suggests that local ichthyofaunal communities have remained relatively stable since the late mid-Pleistocene.
The first fossil remains of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and palynomorphs of the Chorrillo Formation (Austral Basin), about 30km to the SW of the town of El Calafate (Province of Santa Cruz), ...are described. Fossils include the elasmarian (basal Iguanodontia) Isasicursor santacrucensis gen. et sp. nov., the large titanosaur Nullotitan glaciaris gen. et sp. nov., both large and small Megaraptoridae indet., and fragments of sauropod and theropod eggshells. The list of vertebrates is also composed by the Neognathae Kookne yeutensis gen. et sp. nov., two isolated caudal vertebrae of Mammalia indet., and isolated teeth of a large mosasaur. Remains of fishes, anurans, turtles, and snakes are represented by fragmentary material of low taxonomical value, with the exception of remains belonging to Calyptocephalellidae. On the other hand, a remarkable diversity of terrestrial and freshwater gastropods has been documented, as well as fossil woods and palinological assemblages. The Chorrillo Formation continues south, in the Las Chinas River valley, southern Chile, where it is called Dorotea Formation. Both units share in their lower two thirds abundant materials of titanosaurs, whose remains cease to appear in the upper third, registering only elasmarians (Chorrillo Formation) and hadrosaurs (Dorotea Formation). Above both units there are levels with remains of invertebrates and marine reptiles. It is striking that the dinosaurs of the lower two thirds of the Chorrillo and Dorotea formations are represented by large basal titanosaurs and Megaraptoridae coelurosaurs, being the Saltasaurinae and Aeolosaurinae sauropods and Abelisauridae theropods totally absent. In contrast, these taxa are dominant components in sedimentary units of central and northern Patagonia (e.g., Allen, Los Alamitos, La Colonia formations). Such differences could reflect, in part, a greater antiquity (i.e., late Campanian-early Maastrichtian) for the Chorrillo fossils, or, more probably, different environmental conditions. Thus, knowledge of the biota of the southern tip of Patagonia is expanded, particularly those temporarily close to the K-Pg boundary.
With an estimate of around 9,000 species, the Neotropical region hosts the greatest diversity of freshwater fishes of the world. Genetic surveys have the potential to unravel isolated and unique ...lineages and may result in the identification of undescribed species, accelerating the cataloguing of extant biodiversity. In this paper, molecular diversity within the valuable and widespread Neotropical genus Hoplias was assessed by means of DNA Barcoding. The geographic coverage spanned 40 degrees of latitude from French Guiana to Argentina. Our analyses revealed 22 mitochondrial lineages fully supported by means of Barcode Index Number, Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery and phylogenetic analyses. This mtDNA survey revealed the existence of 15 fully supported mitochondrial lineages within the once considered to be the continentally distributed H. malabaricus. Only four of them are currently described as valid species however, leaving 11 mitochondrial lineages currently "masked" within this species complex. Mean genetic divergence was 13.1%. Barcoding gap analysis discriminated 20 out of the 22 lineages tested. Phylogenetic analyses showed that all taxonomically recognized species form monophyletic groups. Hoplias malabaricus sensu stricto clustered within a large clade, excluding the representatives of the La Plata River Basin. In the H. lacerdae group, all species but H. curupira showed a cohesive match between taxonomic and molecular identification. Two different genetic lineages were recovered for H. aimara. Given the unexpected hidden mitochondrial diversity within H. malabaricus, the COI sequence composition of specimens from Suriname (the type locality), identified as H. malabaricus sensu stricto, is of major importance.
Abstract The fossil record of freshwater fishes and anurans from the Miocene in Patagonia is relatively patchy, a large number of specimens remaining undescribed. The aim of the present contribution ...is to describe a fossil association of percomorphacean fishes and calyptocephalellid anurans from the early to late Miocene Collón Curá Formation, at Chubut province, Patagonia, Argentina. In spite of being represented by several specimens, both anurans and fishes show a very low taxonomic diversity. This pattern matches with other fossil sites from the Cenozoic of Patagonia, as well as with the extant Patagonian batrachofaunas and ichthyofaunas. The fossil record of frogs and fishes in Patagonia is represented by few lineages that have a large evolutionary history in the area, and occasionally can be traced up to the Late Mesozoic.
We describe isolated shark teeth collected in levels of the Calafate Formation (Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous) on the southeast coast of Argentino Lake, Calafate City, Santa Cruz Province, ...Argentina. The teeth belong to the hexanchiform Notidanodon dentatus, a new species of the squaliform Protosqualus, and an indeterminate species of the echinorhiniform genus Echinorhinus. The record of Notidanodon constitutes the first in South America. The report of Notidanodon associated with plesiosaur remains is in accordance with previous records from around the world. Protosqualus argentinensis, nov. sp., which is the first record of the genus in South America, is characterized by having teeth with a apicobasally tall root and serrated cutting edges, among other features. Echinorhinus sp. constitutes one of the oldest records of this genus on the continent and one of the few Mesozoic records worldwide. This shark association is clearly distinct from coeval selachian faunas from northern Patagonia, which exhibit clear Tethyan influences. Instead, it shows some similarities to other high-latitude selachian faunas, including Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. It is possible that the Cretaceous selachian assemblages of Patagonia may be separated into two different associations: northern Patagonian faunas are related to more temperate associations of lower paleolatitudes, whereas those of southern Patagonia are closer to other southern localities.
Hypostomus commersoni Valenciennes 1836, Hypostomus cordovae (Günther 1880) and Hypostomus laplatae (Eigenmann 1907) have been little studied since their original descriptions. This study shows a ...comprehensive review of these species from the Lower La Plata Basin, including their taxonomic history, distribution, color patterns, morphology, and ecological and molecular phylogenetic data. Morphological and phylogenetic analyses based on D-loop sequences suggested that H. commersoni can be separated into two subclades, or subgroups. Based on these results and on the non-overlapping distribution range of the two subclades, we conclude that they represent two distinct species, thereby revalidating H. spiniger. The results also suggest that H. paranensis should be considered as species inquirenda and H. cordovae as valid species. This integrated approach provides key information for assessing the conservation status and biogeographic aspects of the genus Hypostomus in the Lower La Plata Basin.
The distribution of genetic diversity across a species distribution range is rarely homogeneous, as the genetic structure among populations is related to the degree of isolation among them, such as ...isolation by distance, isolation by barrier, and isolation by environment.
Jenynsia lineata is a small viviparous fish that inhabits a wide range of habitats in South America. To decipher the isolation processes that drive population structuring in J. lineata, we analyzed 221 sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene (COI), from 19 localities. Then, we examined the influence of the three most common types of isolation in order to explain the genetic variation found in this species.
Our results revealed a marked structuration, with three groups: (a) La Plata/Desaguadero Rivers (sampling sites across Argentina, Uruguay, and Southern Brazil), (b) Central Argentina, and (c) Northern Argentina. A distance‐based redundancy analysis, including the explanatory variables geographical distances, altitude, latitude, and basin, was able to explain up to 65% of the genetic structure. A variance partitioning analysis showed that the two most important variables underlying the structuration in J. lineata were altitude (isolation by environment) and type of basin (isolation by barrier).
Our results show that in this species, the processes of population diversification are complex and are not limited to a single mechanism. The processes that play a prominent role in this study could explain the high rate of diversity that characterizes freshwater fish species. And these processes in turn are the basis for possible speciation events.
The processes of population diversification are complex and are not limited to a single mechanism. Population structuring may lead to population reproductive isolation and ultimately to speciation.
We describe isolated shark teeth collected from levels of the Calafate Formation at the SE coast of the Argentino Lake, Calafate city, Santa Cruz province, Argentina (Atlantic Ocean), and from the ...Algarrobo coast at the Valparaíso Region in central Chile (Pacific Ocean). The teeth belong to a new species of the echinorhiniform genus Echinorhinus. Echinorhinus maremagnum n. sp. was a taxon distributed in both the southwestern Atlantic and the southeastern Pacific. This new taxon constitutes the oldest record of echinorhiniforms from South America and one of the few Mesozoic records at a worldwide scale.
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is distributed among most oceans and seas of the globe (except Mediterranean Sea). These whales migrate from feeding regions in the Antarctic waters to ...breeding areas in tropical and subtropical seas. Here we report the stranding of a female young humpback whale, which was founded dead in the vicinity of the Talavera Island, in the Paraná River Delta, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. From the analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences, two novel haplotypes were found, totalizing four haplotypes described for the species. In the La Plata River Basin this species was found only twice at the end of the XIX century. Thus, the new finding constitutes an important addition to the list of cetaceans that occurs in Uruguay, Paraná and La Plata Rivers.
Brachyplatystoma is a genus of freshwater catfishes endemic of South America that includes one the largest siluriform species of the neotropics. The fossil record of the genus is restricted to the ...Miocene of Colombia and Venezuela and the extant species are distributed along Orinoco and Amazonas basins. The present works aims to describe a new species of Brachyplatystoma from late Miocene deposits at Entre Ríos Province, Argentina. The present report constitutes the first finding of Brachyplatystoma in the Paleoparaná Basin, which is in agreement with previous hypothesis indicating hydrographic connections of this river basin with the Amazon basin until at least the early late Miocene times.
Display omitted
•Brachyplatystoma is a freshwater catfish genus including some species of gigantic size restricted to northern South America.•Here we describe a new species of Brachyplatystoma from late Miocene deposits at Entre Ríos Province, Argentina.•The present record represents an important expansion of the geographical distribution from this genus.•This finding reinforces previous hypothesis sustaining hydrographic links between the Paraná and Amazon basins up to Miocene.
PDF
