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Blancan camelids from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, central México

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

E. Jiménez-Hidalgo  and
O. Carranza-Castañeda
E. Jiménez-Hidalgo
Affiliation:
Universidad del Mar, Campus Puerto Escondido, Instituto de Recursos, Km. 2.5 Carretera Puerto Escondido-Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca 71980, México
O. Carranza-Castañeda
Affiliation:
Centro de Geociencias, Campus Juriquilla, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Juriquilla, Querétaro 76230, México,
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Abstract

During the Pliocene, the diversification of the tribes Lamini and Camelini of the Family Camelidae took place in most of North America, but at present in Mexico the systematics of Pliocene Camelidae are poorly known. Fossil material described in this paper was recovered from Blancan I and Blancan III age floodplain and point bar deposits of the San Miguel de Allende basin, Guanajuato state, central Mexico, which approximately spans a time frame from 4.7 to 3.0 Ma. The identified taxa include the lamines Hemiauchenia blancoensis (Meade) 1945, Hemiauchenia gracilis Meachen, 2005, Blancocamelus meadei Dalquest, 1975 and Camelops sp., while the camelines are represented by Megatylopus sp. The records of H. gracilis and B. meadei in the Pliocene of central Mexico are the oldest in North America. Previous studies of the probable feeding strategies of these taxa indicate that they were browsers or browser-like intermediate feeders and just one was an intermediate feeder. The records of these species in the Early Blancan of Guanajuato extend their geographic distribution from the southern USA to central Mexico.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 51 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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