Where: Piura, Peru (4.7° S, 81.1° W: paleocoordinates 4.7° S, 81.1° W)
• coordinate based on nearby landmark
• small collection-level geographic resolution
When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)
Environment/lithology: tar; lithified, sandy lithology not reported
Size class: macrofossils
Preservation: original phosphate
Collected by expedition from the division of zoology and palaeontology of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto in January,February 1958
Primary reference: C. S. Churcher. 1959. Fossil Canis from the Tar Pits of La Brea, Peru. Science 130(3375):564-565 [C. Jaramillo/J. Ceballos/A. Cardenas ]more details
Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis
PaleoDB collection 144976: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Juliana Ceballos on 24.05.2013, edited by Andrés Cárdenas
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
•The conclusion resulting from this first investigation is that a large wolf-like creature existed in the Pleistocene of Peru and that this creature belongs within the genus Canis and is closely related to C. dirus of the Californian Pleistocene tar pits. Until further material has been developed from the matrix it is too early to state definitely whether it is identical with C. dirus or not, and it is proposed for the present to refrain from giving the Peruvian wolf a separate name, since its synonymity with C. dirus is a distinct possibility.
Mammalia | |
"Haplomastodon sp." = Notiomastodon
"Haplomastodon sp." = Notiomastodon Cabrera 1929 gomphothere | |
Equus sp. Linnaeus 1758 horse | |
Odocoileus sp. Rafinesque 1832 New World deer | |
Palaeolama sp. Gervais 1869 camel | |
Smilodon sp., "Felis atrox" = Panthera leo atrox
Smilodon sp. Lund 1841 saber-toothed cat
"Felis atrox" = Panthera leo atrox Leidy 1853 lion | |
cf. Dusicyon (Lycalopex) sp., "Canis cf. dirus" = Aenocyon dirus
cf. Dusicyon (Lycalopex) sp. Hamilton Smith 1839 Falkland Island wolf
"Canis cf. dirus" = Aenocyon dirus Leidy 1858 dire wolf | |
Chlamytherium sp. Lund 1838 edentate | |
Eremotherium sp. Spillmann 1948 edentate |