The late Miocene caimanine fauna (Crocodylia: Alligatoroidea) of the Urumaco Formation, Venezuela

Abstract

The late Miocene Urumaco Formation at Urumaco, Falcón state, Venezuela, is remarkably rich in extinct crocodylians, presenting a diversity hotspot in the Neotropics for the group. Herein, we revise the Caimaninae fauna by including novel fossil material as well as the previously described specimens assignable to this clade. In many instances the taxonomic status of species could be confirmed, which is the case in Caiman brevirostris, Globidentosuchus brevirostris, and Purussaurus mirandai, and novel osteological data is presented to corroborate previous anatomical descriptions. In other cases, specimens needed to be reassigned to different taxa; with material previously identified as Caiman lutescens now considered as belonging to either Caiman latirostris or Caiman wannlangstoni, and material of Melanosuchus fisheri reassigned to Caimaninae aff. Melanosuchus fisheri. Furthermore, Mourasuchus nativus is considered to be a junior synonym of Mourasuchus arendsi herein. This suggests that there are only three species of the duck-billed caimanine Mourasuchus present in the Miocene of South America, having colonised the continent from the northwest (Colombia and Peru) during the middle Miocene and moving to the east and southeast (Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina) in the late Miocene. Other specimens, which were previously identified as belonging to the genus Caiman, lack diagnostic features of the modern genus and are instead considered as Caimaninae indet. Besides improving the knowledge of the late Miocene crocodylians of South America, our results confirm the high taxonomic diversity of the fauna and the outstanding level of sympatry previously reported for the Urumaco Formation