| Popis: |
The discovery of an Early-Middle Pleistocene continental vertebrate fauna from El Salvador is here reported. These fossils provide information about a poorly studied geographic area that played an important role during the Great American Faunal Interchange. The fauna is dominated by numerous remains of the proboscidean Cuvieronius tropicus and probably represents the largest known concentration of this genus in America. A number of living taxa are first recorded as fossils in El Salvador, including Crocodylus acutus, previously unknown as a fossil elsewhere. Hesperotestudo crassiscutata, Glyptotherium arizonae, Palaeolama, Hemiauchenia cf. H. seymourensis and Equus conversidens, are recorded for the first time in Central America. The new locality also holds the oldest record of Mazama, and the southernmost records of Glyptotherium arizonae and Equus conversidens. At least 17 taxa are represented in the new site, constituting the richest Central American continental vertebrate locality hitherto known. |
