Mariela C Castro

• PhD
• Professor at Universidade Federal de Catalão, Brazil

Speothos pacivorus from the Pleistocene of Brazilian Intertropical Region (BIR) is distinguished from the extant bush dog S. venaticus by its larger size and key characters of the skeleton and teeth. Nonetheless, its taxonomic status is volatile, with some authors still considering both species as synonymous. Here, we aimed to summarize morphofunct...

No contexto do Projeto-Temático FAPESP No. 20/07997-4 "Explorando a diversidade dos dinossauros do Cretáceo Sul-Americano e suas faunas associadas", foram realizados nos anos de 2023 (03 a 17 de junho) e 2024 (23 de junho a 09 de julho) dois trabalhos de campo para os arredores de Bagua e Bagua Grande, Região do Amazonas, Peru. Os depósitos explora...

Animal stereotypies, by definition, are repetitive behaviors performed in a consistent manner without any apparent functional purpose for the animal. These actions are often triggered by some form of stress that the individual has experienced or is currently experiencing. For animals kept under human care, such behavioral expression is a concern. P...

Speothos pacivorus is an extinct South American canid (Canidae: Cerdocyonina) from the Pleistocene of Lagoa Santa Karst, Central Brazil. This taxon is one of the hypercarnivore canids that vanished from the continent at the end of Pleistocene. Although all remains of Speothos pacivorus were collected in the 19th century by the Danish naturalist Pet...

Cingulata (Mammalia, Xenarthra) is one of the most conspicuous clades in the Cenozoic fossil record of South America, largely due to the high abundance of disarticulated osteoderms in most fossiliferous sites of the continent. Nevertheless, the fragmentary nature of this material hinders the identification of extinct taxa, particularly in groups th...

The peopling of the Americas and human interaction with the Pleistocene megafauna in South America remain hotly debated. The Santa Elina rock shelter in Central Brazil shows evidence of successive human settlements from around the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the Early Holocene. Two Pleisto-cene archaeological layers include rich lithic industry a...

The Adamantina Formation is the most extensive and taxonomically rich unity within the Bauru Group (Upper Cretaceous). This unity is considered one of the complete fossil records of vertebrate continental communities during the Cretaceous Gondwanan landmasses. However, this important fossil record is mainly based on large and articulated remains, a...

The Bauru Basin bears one of the best sampled tetrapod paleofaunas of Brazil, with about 70% of this diversity collected from its deposits in São Paulo. Its fossils are known since the beginning of the 20th century, coming from all stratigraphic units of the Basin cropping-out in the state, i.e., Santo Anastácio, Araçatuba, Adamantina (alternativel...

A Bacia Bauru congrega um dos mais ricos conjuntos de somatofósseis de tetrá- podes do território brasileiro, sendo cerca de 70% dessa paleodiversidade procedente de seus depósitos em São Paulo. Com registros conhecidos desde o início do século XX, tais fósseis foram coletados em todas as unidades estratigrá cas da Bacia que a oram no estado, i.e.,...

Cerdocyonina is a clade composed by the South‐American canids in which the bush dog (Speothos venaticus) is one of the most elusive species. Known for its unique morphology within the group, this small, bear‐like faced canid is the only member of the clade adapted to hypercarnivory, an almost exclusively meat‐based diet currently present only in us...

Cabassous tatouay occurs in moist forests, savannas, and grasslands of south, central, and northeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, and Uruguay. Despite its wide distribution range, C. tatouay is scarcely recorded in some regions. This study aimed to: present new records of C. tatouay; compile the localities where the species...

Aplication of geometric morphometrics on extant and extinct Dasypodini movable osteoderms as a complement in the identification of fossil taxa of the tribe.

Didelphidae is the largest New World radiation of marsupials, and is mostly represented by arboreal, small- to medium-sized taxa that inhabit tropical and/or subtropical forests. The group originated and remained isolated in South America for millions of years, until the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. In this study, we present the first recons...

Most xenarthrans have a reduced and simplified dentition that lacks enamel. However, the presence of prismatic enamel has been recorded in the Eocene armadillos Utaetus buccatus (Euphractinae) and Astegotherium dichotomus (Astegotheriini). Among extant xenarthrans, the occurrence of enamel has been recognized only in the long-nosed armadillo, Dasyp...

Gruta do Ioiô is a cave part of Iraquara carstic system (Salitre Formation, Una Group). Located in the region of the Chapada Diamantina, northeastern Brazil, this partially submerged cave has yielded abundant fossil remains that until now included Siluriformes, an alligatorid crocodilian and a set of mammals, such as representatives of Mustelidae,...

Most species of mustelids currently found in South America descend from North American immigrants that arrived during the Great American Biotic Interchange, following the rise of the Isthmus of Panama. However, previous works indicate that the genus Eira arrived in South America before this event, through an island bridge in Central America. The ta...

Riostegotherium yanei from the Itaboraí Basin, Brazil, is the oldest known Xenarthra. This paper aims to describe the internal morphology of the osteoderms of Riostegotherium yanei from the perspective of histology and micro-CT approaches, expanding the available data on cingulate osteoderm microstructure. Seven osteoderms of R. yanei were used for...

The Pantanal Cat, Leopardus colocola braccatus , presents a broad distribution over several biomes in South America. However, the distribution of the species is based on a limited number of occurrences, and confirmed records of the species are scarce. Here, we present 2 confirmed records of Leopardus colocola braccatus from the state of São Paulo,...

The Pantanal Cat, Leopardus colocola braccatus, presents a broad distribution over several biomes in South America. However, the distribution of the species is based on a limited number of occurrences, and confirmed records of the species are scarce. Here, we present 2 confirmed records of Leopardus colocola braccatus from the state of São Paulo, s...

In the last three decades, records of tribosphenidan mammalsfrom India, continental Africa, Madagascar and South Americahave challenged the notion of a strictly Laurasian distributionof the group during the Cretaceous. Here, we describe a lowerpremolar from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation, SãoPaulo State, Brazil. It differs from all known...

Ecological niche modeling (ENM) uses species’ known occurrences and environmental variables to estimate potential geographic distributions. The potential distribution of a species can be updated and refined after new occurrences are collected; therefore, we developed an online application (Armadillo Mapper [AM]) that automatically updates the ecolo...

The hairy long-nosed armadillo (Dasypus pilosus) is endemic to the Andes in Peru and rarely studied, thus more investigations are needed. To gain a better understanding of this species? distribution and to facilitate future surveys and conservation management, we compiled available information on specimens of D. pilosus, provided an ecological biog...

The Dasypodini are one of the most basal clades of cingulates according to morphologic and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Its living representatives are the group of armadillos with most species and the widest latitudinal geographic distribution, occupying distinct biomes aproximatelly between 40° N and 40° S. In this context, this paper aims to...

Among extant mammals, the presence of osteoderms is limited to armadillos (Xenarthra, Dasypodidae), being one of its distinctive features. The osteoderms are articulated to form a carapace that covers their body dorsally. In this paper we study the integumentary structures of the armadillos Chaetophractus vellerosus, Chaetophractus villosus, Euphra...

The hairy long-nosed armadillo, currently referred as Dasypus (Cryptophractus) pilosus, is an enigmatic species endemic to montane cloud forests and subparamo of Peruvian Andes. Its strikingly different external features, which include the carapace concealed by abundant hair, the presence of more movable bands, and a slender skull, have raised ques...

This paper presents the Quaternary cingulates collected from two limestone caves in Aurora do Tocantins, northern Brazil. Osteoderms of Euphractus sexcinctus, Dasypus novemcinctus, Propraopus sulcatus, and Pachyarmaterium brasiliense were retrieved, representing an expansion on the known distribution of the taxa. The specimens are described herein,...

This paper presents the Quaternary cingulates collected from two limestone caves in Aurora do Tocantins, northern Brazil. Osteoderms of Euphractus sexcinctus, Dasypus novemcinctus, Propraopus sulcatus, and Pachyarmaterium brasiliense were retrieved, representing an expansion on the known distribution of the taxa. The specimens are described herein,...

A new species of dasypodid armadillo (Xenarthra, Cingulata), Anadasypus aequatorianus, from the late Miocene of Ecuador is described. The remains were collected in sediments of the Letrero Formation, Nabón Basin, which is part of several intermontane basins related to Andean uplift. The genus represents the oldest record of Dasypodini, which also e...

a b s t r a c t The present study reports the Quaternary vertebrate fauna of Gruta do Ioiô, a partially submerged limestone cave located in central Bahia, northeastern Brazil. A semi-arid weather prevails nowadays in the area, which is mostly covered by a xeric low arboreal scrubland known as Caatinga. The identified taxa include: Rhamdia (Osteicht...

We describe Pliodasypus vergelianus gen. et sp. nov., a Dasypodini armadillo from the middle Pliocene of Venezuela (Vergel Member, San Gregorio Formation). Although scarce, the remains are remarkable because of their geochronologic proximity to the main phase of Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). The cladistic analysis conducted reveals that...

This paper describes new remains of Propraopus sulcatus from a late Quaternary cave deposit located in Aurora do Tocantins, northern Brazil. Propraopus was recorded in numerous late Pleistocene–early Holocene sites in South America, and its inclusiveness has been long debated. In order to address some of the controversial taxonomic questions, the o...

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the cont...

The Quaternary vertebrate fauna record of South America is characterized by the predominance of mammals, and the study of cave deposits can provide important information on their diversity and distribution. In Brazil, cave deposits have preserved remarkable fossil remains, including both large and small vertebrates, although the former have been th...

Late eruption of the permanent dentition was recently proposed as a shared anatomical feature of endemic African mammals (Afrotheria), with anecdotal reports indicating that it is also present in dasypodids (armadillos). In order to clarify this question, and address the possiblity that late eruption is shared by afrotherians and dasypodids, we qua...

O presente trabalho apresenta a descrição comparativa de crânio, pós-crânio e osteodermos do Dasypodini (Xenarthra, Cingulata) MNRJ 552-V, proveniente dos depósitos quaternários da Gruta de Itaporanga, Sorocaba-SP. Seu crânio foi tomografado e comparado àqueles de táxons viventes, de modo a abarcar as três subfamílias de Dasypodidae, enquanto seu p...

The postcranial remains of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon populator dealt with here corresponds to the first occurrence of the taxon in the State of São Paulo, filling a gap in its geographical distribution. The fossils were collected in Abismo Iguatemi, a karstic fissure located in the municipality of Apiaí, upper Ribeira River valley. Given that...

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso apresentado ao Departamento de Biologia da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo.