Wednesday, April 20, 2022

[Paleontology • 2022] The First Fossil Toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Cura-Mallín Formation (Río Pedregoso Member, middle Miocene) of Lonquimay, Araucania Region, Central Chile


cf. Rhinella sitting on skull of Meganhinga chilensis

in Guevara, Lara, Alarcón-Muñoz, ... et Rubilar-Rogers, 2022. 

Abstract
This work describes the first record of a fossil anuran from the Neogene of Chile, found in miocene outcrops of the Río Pedregoso Member of the Cura-Mallín Formation, near the town of Lonquimay, Araucanía Region. The material consists of a distal half of left humerus and the proximal half of a radioulnae preserved in natural articulation. These elements present several similarities with extant members of Rhinella, which allow to confer the specimen to this genus. These similarities are the greater development of the ulnar epicondyle with respect to the radial, which may also have a great development of the medial crest, and the presence of a lateral crest and a humeral head slightly laterally displaced from the shaft of the diaphysis. Rhinella is a well-represented genus in the current batrachofauna of South America, but with a poor fossil record. The finding represents the southernmost fossil record of Bufonidae in South America for the Miocene. This discovery increases the knowledge about the distribution of the members of Rhinella during this epoch.

 
 Juan Pablo Guevara, Felipe Suazo Lara, Jhonatan Alarcón-Muñoz, Karina E. Buldrini, Sergio Soto-Acuña and David Rubilar-Rogers. 2022. The First Fossil Toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Cura-Mallín Formation (Río Pedregoso Member, middle Miocene) of Lonquimay, Araucania Region, Central Chile. Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 115, 103753. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2022.103753

The skull is from Meganhinga chilensis, and those mammals from behind are Protypotheriums. The toad is a "cf. Rhinella" in our study