Dispersal of Pleistocene Equus (Family Equidae) into South America and calibration of GABI 3 based on evidence from Tarija, Bolivia.

ABSTRACT: The dispersal of Equus into South America during the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) represented a major event for Pleistocene land-mammal age chronology on that continent. It has been argued that this dispersal occurred during the late Pleistocene, ∼0.125 Ma, and it defines the base of the Lujanian South American Land Mammal Age (SALMA). In this scenario, Equus dispersed during the fourth and latest recognized phase of the interchange, i.e., GABI 4. Although Equus was widely distributed in South America during the Pleistocene, only a few localities are calibrated by independent chronostratigraphic data. In this paper, new biostratigraphic evidence documents that Equus occurs from 15 superposed faunal horizons or zones throughout the Tolomosa Formation at Tarija, Bolivia. This bio

SUBMITTER: MacFadden BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3603859 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature