Figure 5 - uploaded by Jorge Domingo Carrillo Briceño
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" Ground sloth " specimens. (a–n) Tardigrada indet. (a–b) Glenoid fossa of scapula (MB.Ma. 42900); (c–d) left? magnum (MB.Ma. 33540); (e–f) right astragalus (MB.Ma. 42904); (g–h) metatarsal V of indet. laterality (MB.Ma. 42907); (i–j) left metatarsal V (MB.Ma. 42906); (k–l) second phalanx of indet. laterality (MB.Ma. 33537); (m–n) distal fragment of metapodial of indet. laterality (MB.Ma. 33538). Scale bar equals 2 cm.
Source publication
During the mid-19th century, the German naturalist Hermann Karsten conducted a 12-year exploration (1844–1856) in the territories of Ecuador, New Granada (now Colombia) and Venezuela, allowing him to produce important botanic, geographic and geologic descriptions with valuable information that permits us to refer to him as a pioneer in many of thes...
Citations
... The collections of fossil mammals made by early explorers in South America during the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries have been fundamental to reveal the past diversity of South American mammals and unravel their evolutionary history (Defler, 2019;Fariña et al., 2013;Hatcher, 1985;Vizcaíno et al., 2017). These collections continue to be studied, some even recently highlighted for the first time (e.g., Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2016Zurita-Altamirano et al., 2019), and have great historical and scientific value (Vizcaíno et al., 2017). One of the most important early fossil collectors in Argentina was the Swiss-Argentine palaeontologist Kaspar Jacob Roth, known as Santiago Roth (1850Roth ( -1924, who made significant collections of fossil mammals that are housed in museums in Europe and Argentina (Bond, 1999a;Hansen, 2019;Sánchez-Villagra et al., 2023;Voglino et al., 2023). ...
The fossil collections made by early explorers in South America have been fundamental to reveal the past diversity of extinct mammals and unravel their evolutionary history. One important early explorer in South America was the Swiss-Argentine palaeontologist Kaspar Jacob Roth, known as Santiago Roth (1850, Herisau, Switzerland-1924, Buenos Aires, Argentina), who made significant collections of fossil mammals that are housed in museums in Europe and Argentina. The important collections of Roth in Switzerland include iconic Pleistocene megafauna from the Pampean Region (Argentina). The palaeontological significance of the Pampean Region relies on its abundant record of fossil vertebrates that documents diversity dynamics and paleoenvironmental change in southern South America, serving as the basis for the South American biostratigraphical scale of the late Neogene and Quaternary. The South American native ungulates (SANUs) were hoofed placental mammals that radiated in South America. The clades Notoungulata and Litopterna include, among others, the last representatives of SANUs megafauna in the continent. We revise and describe for the first time the SANUs specimens from the Pampean Region of the Roth collections in Switzerland. The collections include two species of notoungulates ( Toxodon cf. T. platensis and Mesotherium cristatum ) and one litoptern species ( Macrauchenia patachonica ). The occurrences are restricted to the early and middle Pleistocene (pre-Lujanian Stages/Ages). Although the SANUs diversity in the Roth collections is low in comparison with other groups (e.g., xenarthrans), some of the specimens are very complete, including skulls and postcranial remains. The completeness of the Ma. patachonica material allows an update and reinterpretation of some of the details of the dentition and the postcranial skeleton of this iconic species. In addition to its historical importance, the SANU specimens from the Roth collections provide important information to study the paleobiology and evolution of South American megafauna and evaluate hypotheses about their extinction in the continent.
... After more than 200 years of collecting around the world, some collections are now forgotten, lost, or understudied. In Europe, recently, several institutions are trying to highlight the most significant paleontological collection of mammals (e.g., Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2016;Solé et al., 2020;Van der Hoek, 2021;Vera et al., 2015;Zurita-Altamirano et al., 2019), a primacy for paleontological community. An example is the significant collection of Pleistocene megafauna from South America assembled by Santiago Roth. ...
Unlabelled:
The present work concerns xenarthrans from the collection of Santiago (Kaspar Jakob) Roth (1850-1924) housed at the Palaeontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich, one of the most important collections of Pleistocene mammals from Argentina in Europe. Roth was a paleontologist originally from Switzerland who prospected and collected a large amount of Pleistocene megafauna of the Pampean Region of Argentina. The xenarthrans are the main representatives of this collection in Zurich, with 150 specimens. Since 1920, this material has not been revised and is under studied. The present investigation corresponds to a taxonomic revision resulting in 114 reassignments, leading to document xenarthran diversity and discuss their paleoecologies. The high diversity reflects the paleoecology of the Pampean Region during the Pleistocene, with the various abiotic events that impacted the paleoenvironment of this region. Within the Cingulata, the Pampean Region fauna was probably dominated by glyptodonts with a high representation of Glyptodontinae and Neosclerocalyptinae while within the sloths the highest diversity and abundance is found in the Mylodontinae and Scelidotheriinae. These four clades represent both species with high ecological tolerance (e.g., Glyptodon munizi; Catonyx tarijensis) and ecologically highly specialized species (e.g., Neosclerocalyptus paskoensis; Scelidotherium leptocephalum). The presence of such ecological diversity underlines the status of the Pampean Region as a major interest for paleoecological and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13358-023-00265-7.
... Llega inicialmente a Venezuela en 1844 (Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2016) en donde se encuentra con Agustín Codazzi (Aalto, 2015), quien allí adelantaba una cartografía geográfica detallada. Posteriormente Karsten pasa a Colombia alcanzando a llegar al norte de Ecuador. ...
... En sus investigaciones, Karsten estuvo en Venezuela inicialmente entre 1844 y 1847, posteriormente entre 1848 y 1852 (Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2016), en donde colectó fósiles en el norte y principalmente en cercanías a los Andes de Mérida (Karsten, 1849(Karsten, , 1850(Karsten, , 1858(Karsten, , 1886(Karsten, , 1947. Los fósiles recolectados por Karsten fueron llevados a Alemania, por lo que se encuentran almacenados y custodiados en el Museo de Historia Natural de Berlín (Museum für Naturkunde -MNK) dentro de la colección Karsten. ...
From an invertebrate fossils collection at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin (Germany) is possible to find Ammonites Leonhardianus that was introduced as new species by Karsten in 1858. This taxon, Paralenticeras leonhardianus (Karsten, 1858) was collected at the Barbacoas Village (Morán municipality, Lara state – Venezuela) from a Coniacian calcareous succession to the west of El Tocuyo. To the collection of P. leonhardianus is proposed a lectotype and three paralectotypes. Here 26 specimens are described, measured and illustrated.
... The wasp nests potentially created by members of the Protopolybia genus reported here from the Pubenza locality represent the first record of this type of trace structures in the fossil record of hymenopterans in northern South America, where previously full body insects were only known to occur as (sub)fossils in copal from Santander, Colombia (Hinojosa-Diaz and Engel, 2007;Penney et al., 2013;Poinar et al., 2017) and in the states of Falcon and Lara, Venezuela (Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2016). The elemental characterisation using SEM/EDS of the nests from Pubenza presented here show an advanced process of replacement with calcium carbonate, enough to call these structures fossils and not just simple (sub) fossils. ...
Pubenza is a remarkable palaeontological site of Colombia, and a place that could hold some of the potentially oldest evidence of humans in northern South America. Previous palaeontological research at this site has mainly focused on the megafauna. Here we describe and establish the systematic palaeontology for the small fauna that inhabited this ancient lacustrine ecosystem, including the first report of birds, tortoises and vipers for the Late Pleistocene in Colombia. Furthermore, exceptionally well preserved fossilised wasp nests are morphologically and elementally characterised, which is the first report of an ichnofossil of this kind in northern South America. In addition, new material of kinosternid turtles, armadillos and rodents is also described. Our results reveal that the Bogotá River Basin, where Pubenza is located, was a rich ecosystem during the Late Pleistocene and a region of great interest for future articulated palaeontological and archaeological studies.
... Some of this history continues to come into light even today, an example is the photographic album from William B. Scott of 1901 housed in the Kansas University Natural History Museum, recently identified (Vizcaíno et al. 2017). Similarly, across European universities and museums, there are historical collections which have been either forgotten, lost, or that remain unstudied, some of them revisited only recently; for example, the collections of Egidio Feruglio housed in the Museum of Geology and Paleontology of the University of Padova (Vera, Fornasiero and Del Favero 2015), and the collection of Hermann Karsten (1817Karsten ( -1908 housed in the Museum of Natural History of Berlin (Carrillo-Briceño et al. 2016). ...
One of the best-known faunal assemblages that characterizes the past ecosystems from South America comes from the Santa Cruz Formation in Argentina. This assemblage is formed by an endemic fauna, which included ground sloths, glyptodonts, native ungulates, terror birds (phorusrhacids), among others. The Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age is dated 18.0–15.6 Ma, late early Miocene. Current curatorial efforts revealed a large collection of over 1100 fossil remains from the Santa Cruz Formation, donated in 2007 to the Paleontological Museum, University of Zurich, Switzerland. The fossils were brought to Switzerland in the late 1880s by Theodor Allemann, an engineer and amateur collector. The collection includes skulls, isolated teeth, mandibles, and isolated postcranial elements. Postcranials are mainly represented by astragali, calcanei, and osteoderms. The study of the remains allowed us to recognize 20 families of mammals, one of birds, and one of amphibians: Abderitidae, Palaeothentidae (Paucituberculata); Hathliacynidae (Sparassodonta); Dasypodidae, Peltephilidae, and Glyptodontidae (Cingulata); Megatheriidae and Megalonychidae (Tardigrada); Astrapotheriidae (Astrapotheria), Protherotheriidae and Macraucheniidae (Litopterna); Toxodontidae, Homalodotheriidae, Hegetotheriidae and Interatheriidae (Notoungulata); Dasyproctidae, Dinomyidae, Neoepiblemidae, Chinchillidae, Erethizontidae, Echimyidae and Eocardidae (Rodentia); Phorusrhacidae (Cariamiformes); and Calyptocephalellidae (Anura). Among them, we identified 28 genera and 9 species. Reference to the previous work on the Santa Cruz fauna and the good preservation of the material allow us to achieve taxonomic resolution in the identifications. We discuss the potential usefulness of this collection for studying the paleobiology of specimens/species of this fauna.
Numerous surveys and three excavation and surface collection field seasons resulted in the discovery of numerous megafaunal remains and that of a medium-sized felid in a new site located on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Venezuela, in Western Falcón State. The faunal assemblage is represented by South American natives such as megatheres (cf. Eremotherium laurillardi ), an indeterminate mylodontid and a glyptodont (probably related to Glyptotherium ) and Nearctic representatives such as gomphotheres ( Notiomastodon platensis ), equids ( Equus sp.) and a feline (Felidae cf. Leopardus pardalis ), providing novel information for the distribution of some of these mammals. Radiocarbon indicates that this deposit is at least 40,000 years old. Lithic artefacts of a kind reported for other Pleistocene sites in the region document the presence of humans in Cauca, but as these cultural remains were found on the surface, their association with the fauna is uncertain.
