Tres Ventanas Cave (Pleistocene of Peru)

Where: Lima, Peru (12.2° S, 76.4° W: paleocoordinates 12.2° S, 76.2° W)

• coordinate based on political unit

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Pisco Formation, Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.0 Ma)

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; lithology not reported

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Collected by F. Engel

Primary reference: F. Pujos and R. Salas. 2004. A new species of Megatherium (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Megatheriidae) from the Pleistocene of Sacaco and Tres Ventanas, Peru. Palaeontology 47(3):579-604 [C. Jaramillo/J. Ceballos/A. Cardenas ]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 144923: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Juliana Ceballos on 21.05.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• The specimen UNA V2642, recovered from Cave Number 2 at Tres Ventanas, is assigned to M. urbinai and helps complete its diagnosis. The Tres Ventanas remains, collected by F. Engel (UNA), were associated with a humerus and fragmentary bones of a juvenile specimen of Scelidodon cf. chiliensis (Mylodontidae: Scelidotheriinae), a common scelidotheriine of the Peruvian coast (Pujos 2000).
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Mammalia
 Megatherioidea - Megatheriidae
Megatherium urbinai
Megatherium urbinai Pujos and Salas 2004 edentate
UNA V2642: a partial skeleton including the coronoid process of the L dentary, proximal end of a stylohyal, a sacral vertebra, a caudal vertebra, a sternebra, several portions of ribs, R ulna (distal half), L scaphoid, R and L lunars, R and L cuneiforms, R and L pisiforms, L unciform, L magnum, R and L trapezoids, L MCC, L McII±V, R McV, R P1-II, R P2-II, R and L P(1±2)-III, L proximal P-V, L distal P-V, a palmar sesamoid, R patella, R calcaneum, R astragalus, R cuboid, R and L naviculars, R MEC, R MtIII±IV±V, phalanges R P3-III, R distal P-V. Three claws and a coprolite of the same specimen were discovered by Engel (1970 and pers. comm. 2001). This material is currently under study but is not within the scope of this paper.