Where: Monagas, Venezuela (9.8° N, 63.3° W: paleocoordinates 9.8° N, 63.0° W)
• coordinate stated in text
• local area-level geographic resolution
When: Mesa Formation, Late/Upper Pliocene to Late/Upper Pliocene (3.6 - 0.8 Ma)
• The Mesa Formation is early to middle Pleistocene age, based on thermoluminescence dates of 0.5 to 1.0 Ma (Carbón et al., 1992).
•Ruiz-Ramoni et al. 2017: El Breal de Orocual locality ORS-16 pit has been dated biochronologically to the Late Pliocene e Early Pleistocene based on the taxa Chapalmatherium sp., Pachyarmatherium leiseyi, and Smilodon gracilis (Rincon et al., 2009, 2011).
•Rincón et al. 2009: The deposit appears to be emplaced within the Mesa Formation, the age of which is assumed to be Pleistocene based on its stratigraphic position with respect to the Pliocene Las Piedras Formation (González de Juana, et al., 1980:713).
• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution
Environment/lithology: terrestrial; tar and tar
•Ruiz-Ramoni et al. 2017: The fauna from ORS-16 consists of 25 mammal taxa including birds, testudines, and a crocodilian, as well as Cebus. All of these taxa indicate that the region was an extensive savanna with water bodies, and patches of gallery forest (Rincon et al., 2007, 2009, 2011; Fortier and Rincon, 2013). The presence of a capuchin monkey, very probably arboreal, supports this paleoecological reconstruction.
•Rincón et al. 2009: The bones and sediments were clearly impregnated with asphalt at some time in the past, but no fluid asphalt is present in the deposit today. Solidified asphalt blocks are exposed in cross section in the wall of the trench in several places. These blocks are surrounded by a weathered corona of badly degraded wood, and appear to represent hollow cavities within logs or branches that were filled with asphalt that could not escape when the rest of the deposit was drained.
Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils
Collection methods: Museum repositories: OR (El Breal de Orocual collection, hosted in Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cient ́ıficas, Caracas, Venezuela)
Primary reference: A. D. Rincón, F. J. Prevosti, and G. E. Parra. 2011. New saber-toothed cat records (Felidae: Machairodontinae) for the Pleistocene of Venezuela, and the Great American Biotic Interchange. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31(2):468-478 [C. Jaramillo/C. Suarez-Gomez]more details
Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis
PaleoDB collection 144977: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Catalina Suarez-Gomez on 24.05.2013, edited by Philip Mannion and Grace Varnham
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
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Crocodylia indet.1 Owen 1842 crocodilian Dorsal osteoderms, OR-1835, OR-1836; lateral osteoderm, OR- 343; centrum of cervical vertebra, OR-1833; centrum of first caudal vertebra, OR-1394; posterior caudal vertebra (OR-348); a set of uncatalogued fragments
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Caimaninae indet.1 Brochu 1999 crocodilian Posterior fragment of right jaw, OR-1679; anterior fragment of right jaw, OR-1683
"Caiman venezuelensis n. sp." = Caiman crocodilus1 Linnaeus 1758 Common caiman OR-1677 - holotype - incomplete left premaxilla
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Smilodon sp.2, Smilodon gracilis, "Homotheriini indet." = Homotheriina2, "Homotherium venezuelensis n. sp." = Xenosmilus venezuelensis
Smilodon gracilis Cope 1880 saber-toothed cat Referred Materials: Upper incisor, OR-1346; fractured left upper crown of canine, 1342; left P3, 1344; right P3, 1347; right P4, 1343; left P4 fragments, 1345
"Homotherium venezuelensis n. sp." = Xenosmilus venezuelensis Rincón et al. 2011 cat Holotype: OR-1352. Hypodigm: Three upper canines, OR-712, OR-1349, OR-1350; four upper canine fragments, OR-080, OR-258, OR-1219, OR-1386; right I3, OR-256; two right P4, OR- 255, OR-1390; two left dentaries, OR-259, OR-330; two dentary fragments, OR-710, OR-711; left lower canine, OR-254; two right lower canines, OR- 771, OR-1221; left m1, OR1389; left i3 and lower canine associate, OR-1166; right i1 crown, OR-081; left i1, OR-1385; right i2, OR-1381; right i3, OR-1220; left i3 crown, OR-785; two left p4, OR-257, OR-1384.
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"cf. Chapalmatherium indet." = Phugatherium2
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