Análisis del único galápago fósil hallado en El Salvador en el XVII Annual Meeting de la EAVP

El registro de tortugas más reciente defendido por miembros de Grupo de Biología Evolutiva de la UNED en el XVII Annual Meeting de la EAVP corresponde al análisis del único galápago (emídido) hallado en el registro fósil de El Salvador, en niveles del Plioceno superior-Pleistoceno inferior.

El resumen es el siguiente:

The late Pliocene-early Pleistocene fossiliferous area of Río Tomayate (Apopa Municipality, El Salvador) represents the richest vertebrate locality in Central America. A diverse fauna was recorded, especially considering the record of reptiles and mammals. The greatest diversity of reptiles corresponds to the turtles. A terrestrial form, belonging to a large-sized testudinid, and two freshwater taxa, identified as a kinosternid and an emydid, were reported. The available information on these taxa was very limited, due to the scarce material attributed to each taxon in the study in which the Río Tomayate fauna was presented, and to the absence of subsequent publications. In the case of the emydid, only an almost complete nuchal (the only figured plate), a partial one, and an epiplastron were recognized. However, the potential belonging of many other unspecified elements to it was suggested. Abundant remains of the emydid from Río Tomayate are recognized here. In this sense, even the single plate (attributed here to a hypoplastron instead of a hyoplastron) previously assigned to a kinosternid (the only report of Kinosternon in a Central American fossil site), is reassigned to the emydid. The almost complete plastral morphology of this emydid is reconstructed, and many elements of the carapace are identified. Based on this new information, which also allows the documentation of intraspecific variability, we perform an accurate approach to the systematic position of the emydid from Río Tomayate, being the only one recognized in the fossil record of El Salvador. Thus, its potential attribution to Deirochelyinae is discussed.

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Más información:

• Imagen: Fotografía de una de las campañas de excavación en Tomayate (El Salvador), donde fueron hallados los ejemplares presentados en este trabajo. Imagen tomada de aquí.
• Referencia: A. Pérez-García, E. Vlachos, M.A. Molina-Leddy. 2019. On the anatomy and systematics of the only emydid turtle recognized in the fossil record of El Salvador. XVII Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists, Abstract Book, 90.