Aldo F. Rincon

Universidad del Norte (Colombia) | Uninorte · Physics and Geosciences

Fossils of an insectivorous bat from the early Miocene of Panama are described as a new genus and species, Americanycteris cyrtodon (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae: Phyllostominae). Americanycteris is a large phyllostomine bat, similar in size to the living species Chrotopterus auritus. Americanycteris cyrtodon can be distinguished from other closely r...

This contribution contains the 3D models described and figured in: New remains of Neotropical bunodont litopterns and the systematics of Megadolodinae (Mammalia: Litopterna). Geodiversitas.

The Pliocene–Pleistocene transition in the Neotropics is poorly understood despite the major climatic changes that occurred at the onset of the Quaternary. The San Gregorio Formation, the younger unit of the Urumaco Sequence, preserves a fauna that documents this critical transition. We report stingrays, freshwater bony fishes, amphibians, crocodil...

South America was isolated during most of the Cenozoic, and it was home to an endemic fauna. The South American Native Ungulates (SANUs) exhibited high taxonomical, morphological, and ecological diversity and were widely distributed on the continent. However, most SANU fossil records come from high latitudes. This sampling bias challenges the study...

New World monkeys (platyrrhines) are a diverse part of modern tropical ecosystems in North and South America, yet their early evolutionary history in the tropics is largely unknown. Molecular divergence estimates suggest that primates arrived in tropical Central America, the southern-most extent of the North American landmass, with several dispersa...

Although Cenozoic protoceratid artiodactyls are known from throughout North America, species referred to the Miocene protoceratine Paratoceras are restricted to subtropical areas of the Gulf Coast and southern Mexico and tropical areas of Panama. Newly discovered fossils from the late Arikareean Lirio Norte Local Fauna, Panama Canal basin, include...

The proboscidean Gomphotherium is reported here from the Alajuela Formation of Panama. Gomphotherium was widespread throughout Holarctica during the Miocene, and the Panama fossil represents the extreme southernmost occurrence of this genus in the New World. Allocation of the Panama Gomphotherium to a valid species is impossible given both the frag...

Parahippines briefly were the numerically dominant group of equids in North America during the latest Arikareean and early Hemingfordian, and form an evolutionary grade intermediate between Miohippus and merychippines. Thomas Farm (early Hemingfordian, Gilchrist County, FL) has produced the largest-known, single locality sample for parahippines, wi...

New excavations along the Panama Canal have yielded a growing Early Miocene assemblage of mammals referred to as the Centenario Fauna. Despite the area’s proximity to South America, the mammals of the Centenario Fauna have entirely North American affinities. The Centenario Fauna is distributed throughout a ∼115-m stratigraphic interval encompassing...

Titanoboa cerrejonensis from the Cerrejón Formation (middle to late Paleocene; 58-60 My) of Colombia, is the largest known snake. The taxon was originally diagnosed, assigned to the clade Boinae, and estimated to be approximately 12.8 m (±2.18 m) in total body length on the basis of precloacal vertebral morphology and size, but the absence of crani...

Despite the fact that fossil crocodylians have been recovered from the Panama Canal Zone starting with initial excavations in 1912, detailed studies have been lacking. Recent excavations of the canal have resulted in new discoveries of many vertebrate fossils, including the first known Miocene crocodylian skulls from Central America. These fossil s...

A new species of bothriodontine anthracothere, Arretotherium meridionale, is described from the early Miocene (Arikareean North America Land Mammal Age) Las Cascadas fossil assemblage in Panama, Central America. Fossils of A. meridionale are the first record of an anthracothere from the New World Tropics. Among anthracotheres, A. meridionale is mos...

Isolated precloacal vertebrae from the early to middle Miocene Gaillard Cut of Panama represent the first Central American fossil record of the extant boine snake Boa and constrain dispersal of the genus into Central America from South America as no younger than approximately 19.3 Ma. Boa from the Las Cascadas fossil assemblage and the Centenario F...

The modern northern Neotropics possesses some of the highest diversity among extant squamates, but the sparse fossil record from this region has previously limited the ability to reconstruct their evolutionary histories. New discoveries from the early Paleogene of northern South America reveal biogeographic patterns and paleoecology of modern clade...

Four distinct fossil turtle assemblages (Chelonia) are recognized from the Panama Canal Basin. The oldest, from the late Eocene–early Oligocene Gatuncillo Formation, is dominated by podocnemidid pleurodires. The early Miocene Culebra Formation includes both podocnemidids and trionychids. The early to middle Miocene Cucaracha Formation includes taxa...

Early Miocene floridatraguline camels are characterized by having an elongate snout, shallow and narrow symphysial area, and relatively primitive dentitions. Their fossil record is restricted to subtropical assemblages including the Hemingfordian Thomas Farm Local Fauna (L. F.) in Florida, the Zoyotal L. F. in Mexico, and the Arikareean Castolon L....

Panama has produced an abundance of Neogene marine fossils both invertebrate (mollusks, corals, microfossils etc.) and vertebrate (fish, land mammals etc.), but marine mammals have not been previously reported. Here we describe a cetacean thoracic vertebra from the late Miocene Tobabe Formation, a partial cetacean rib from the late Miocene Gatun Fo...

Expansion of the Panama Canal that began in 2008 has resulted in renewed focus on geological and paleontological research. New exposures of outcrops have resulted in recovery of many additional vertebrate fossils from the previously known early Miocene Cucaracha Formation (Centenario Fauna). Here we report the first known mammals from the underlyin...

Recently collected specimens of the extinct tayassuine peccary ''Cynorca'' occidentale (and another indeterminant tayassuid) are described from new excavations along the southern reaches of the Panama Canal. Fossil peccaries were previously unknown from Panama, and these new tayassuid specimens therefore add to the extinct mammalian biodiversity in...