Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Paulo Ricardo Mendonça Lopes
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Ribeirão Preto. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2016-04-28 |
| Examining board members: |
Annie Schmaltz Hsiou;
Mariela Cordeiro de Castro;
Mario de Vivo
|
| Advisor: | Annie Schmaltz Hsiou |
| Abstract | |
The recent species Eira barbara (Mustelidae, Carnivora) has a geographic distribution from Mexico to northern Argentina. It is an important taxon to be studied as an anatomical model for the mustelids, as well as an important model for a better understanding of the diversification of the Mustelidae. Currently, the fossil record of E. barbara in South America is scarce and restricted to the Pleistocene, while the studies of these fossils frequently lack greater efforts to perform detailed morphological descriptions and paleobiogeographic studies. Besides limited studies of fossil E. barbara, it was established that the same scenario is seen for the studies on the morphology and biogeography of the species. Thus, this work proposed to: perform a review of all records of the species and, in general, to contribute to a better understanding of the sincranian morphology and the biogeographic and paleobiogeographic studies of E. barbara. In order to achieve this, the following objectives were proposed: study and detailed redescription of the fossil UFAC PV-036 from the Late Pleistocene of Upper Juruá River of the southwest of Brazilian Amazon; compared sincranian description of external and internal morphological structures, analyzing intraspecific characters of extant E. barbara; performance of multivariate analysis to investigate geographical variations on the use of craniometric characters of E. barbara between different Brazilian biomes. The review of the fossil record was of great importance for the establishment of the actual records of the species in South America, while the redescription of UFAC PV-36 contributes to a better anatomical and paleobiogeographic knowledge of the species. The morphological description of the sincranium of E. barbara contribute significantly to the knowledge of the morphology of the species, as much as the description of intraspecific variation provides more appropriate morphological characters in matrices, providing greater robustness in futures phylogenetic analysis. This work proposes that E. barbara does not have statistically significant craniometric differences among Brazilian biomes; however, E. barbara is characterized here as a dimorphic species in which the males have cranial structures relatively larger than the females. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 14/02005-2 - Description of a fossil of Eira barbara (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Late Pleistocene (Acre Basin) and comparative morphology of the sincranium of extant E. barbara: paleobiogeographic, geographic and taxonomic implications |
| Grantee: | Paulo Ricardo Mendonça Lopes |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |