Novos registros de mastodontes (Mammalia: Proboscidea) para Minas Gerais, Brasil: descrição, datação e ecologia alimentar

Abstract

Proboscidea is one of the large mammals groups present in the Brazilian fossil record, represented in the country by the mastodon Notiomastodon platensis (Ameghino, 1888). In contribution to all studies that aim to understand their taxonomy, feeding diet, chronology and paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic aspects in which they lived, this work objective was obtain information about mastodons recorded in the Campina Verde town and in the vicinity of Montes Claros and Francisco Sá, providing new data and analyzes that include: (1) the detailed morphological description of the specimens obtained, (2) the radiocarbon dating and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes analysis of the specimen from Campina Verde. The material description corroborated the exclusive occurrence of the species N. platensis in Brazil. The stable isotopes analysis, in turn, reveals a mixed-feeder with high proportion of grass on its diet (δ13C ‰ 0.53), which indicates the existence of an open savana for the region of Campina Verde town during the end from the Pleistocene period (19,890 ± 45 years), similar to the results found in other locations in the Brazilian Intertropical Region, however comparatively colder and wetter when we analyzed the oxygen values (δ18O ‰ 23,81), which may be a reflection of a humidity corridor from the Amazon region.