The Royal Society
Browse
rsbl20170259_si_001.pdf (518.08 kB)

Additional Discussion, Tables, and Figures from Discovery of the fossil otter Enhydritherium terraenovae (Carnivora, Mammalia) in México reconciles a paleozoogeographic mystery

Download (518.08 kB)
Version 2 2020-10-12, 13:56
Version 1 2017-05-30, 09:32
journal contribution
posted on 2017-05-30, 09:32 authored by Z. Jack Tseng, Adolfo Pacheco-Castro, Oscar Carranza-Castañeda, José Jorge Aranda-Gómez, Xiaoming Wang, Hilda Troncoso
The North American fossil otter Enhydritherium terraenovae is thought to be partially convergent in ecological niche with the living sea otter Enhydra lutris, both having low-crowned crushing teeth and a close association with marine environments. Fossil records of Enhydritherium are found in mostly marginal marine deposits in California and Florida; despite presence of very rich records of fossil terrestrial mammals in contemporaneous localities inland, no Enhydritherium fossils are hitherto known in interior North America. Here we report the first occurrence of Enhydritherium outside of Florida and California, in a land-locked terrestrial mammal fauna of the upper Miocene deposits of Juchipila Basin, Zacatecas State, México. This new occurrence of Enhydritherium is at least 200 km from the modern Pacific coastline, and more than 600 km from the Gulf of México. Besides providing further evidence that Enhydritherium is not dependent on coastal marine environments as originally interpreted, this discovery leads us to propose a new east-to-west dispersal route between the Florida and California Enhydritherium populations through central México. The proximity of the fossil locality to nearby populations of modern neotropical otters Lontra longicaudis suggests that trans-Mexican freshwater corridors for vertebrate species in riparian habitats may have persisted for a prolonged period of time, pre-dating the Great American Biotic Interchange.

History

Usage metrics

    Biology Letters

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC