Rio Engabao (Edmunds collection) (Pleistocene of Ecuador)

Where: Santa Elena, Ecuador (2.3° S, 80.8° W: paleocoordinates 2.3° S, 80.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

Environment/lithology: fluvial; lithology not reported

• The sediments containing the vertebrate remains described here are of estuarine type and were probably laid down by a large stream ancestral to the modern Rio Engabao, but with considerably greater run-off than the present stream. The vertebrate localities probably were near or at the mouth of the old river, and at or very close to sea level. Conditions very similar to those postulated for the Pleistocene Rio Engabao can be seen at the present time at Palmar, about eighteen miles to the north, where a small stream reaches the coast and spreads out into a brackish water swamp with mangroves.

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: A. G. Edmund. 1965. A late pleistocene fauna from the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador. Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Division (63)1-21 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 185519: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 26.04.2017

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus cf. santaeelenae Spillmann 1938 horse
(Amerhippus), tooth and phalanx
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
Odocoileus cf. salinae Frick 1937 New World deer
right astragalus and antler tine
 Carnivora - Felidae
"Smilodon neogaeus" = Smilodon populator
"Smilodon neogaeus" = Smilodon populator Lund 1842 saber-toothed cat
proximal phalanx of digit I
 Carnivora - Mustelidae
cf. Lutra sp. Brisson 1762 otter
isolated vertebra centrum
 Cingulata - Pampatheriidae
Pampatherium cf. occidentale edentate
single scute of the shield, assigned to this species on biogeographic grounds
 Megatherioidea - Megatheriidae
"Eremotherium cf. carolinense" = Eremotherium laurillardi
"Eremotherium cf. carolinense" = Eremotherium laurillardi Lund 1842 edentate
most abundant
Reptilia
 Testudines -
Testudines indet. Batsch 1788 turtle
 Testudines - Testudinidae
"Geochelone cf. gallardoi" = Chelonoidis gallardoi
"Geochelone cf. gallardoi" = Chelonoidis gallardoi Rovereto 1914 turtle
identified by W. Auffenberg, shell remains
 Testudines - Geoemydidae
Geoemyda sp. Gray 1834 turtle
identified by W. Auffenberg