El depósito paleontológico Las Llanadas es un manantial con sedimento rico en materia orgánica. Estudios del sitio a principios del siglo XX, dieron a conocer materiales fósiles de perezosos, cocodrilos, tortugas terrestres, y jutías. Dos especies de perezosos, Acratocnus antillensis y Neocnus gliriformis, fueron nuevas para la ciencia. En el presente trabajo se dan a conocer nuevos registros fósiles de anuros, un reptil y aves para el depósito: Peltophryne empusus, Osteopilus septentrionalis, Cyclura nubila, Tyto alba, Buteogallus borrasi y Boromys ofella. Huesos recientes de Lithobates catesbeianus y Capromys pilorides se encontraron entre los materiales, lo que indica que el depósito se mantiene activo en la recepción de especímenes. De un total de 2030 piezas solo 3% pudo ser identificado taxonómicamente, debido al alto nivel de fragmentación.

The herpetofaunal biodiversity of West Indies suffered a significant change during the last few million years that is well documented for some squamate reptilies (lizards). However, almost nothing is known about past biodiversity of snakes, which are active predators and important component of terrestrial ecosystems. Here we describe the fossil remains of snakes (Reptilia: Serpentes) from the late Pleistocene of El Abrón Cave, Cuba. This is the first representative assemblage of fossil snakes from Cuba. It allows us to evaluate the taxonomic diversity of snakes in the Pleistocene of the island for the first time. The material includes eight taxa from the four snake families: cf. Cubatyphlops (Typhlopidae), Tropidophis melanurus, Tropidophis sp., Cubophis cf. cantherigerus, Arrhyton sp., cf. Caraiba andreae, Dipsadidae indet., and Natricidae indet. (Natricidae). Two (Dipsadidae indet. and Natricidae indet.) are not known in the modern fauna of Cuba. The assemblage from El Abrón Cave shows that ophidian Pleistocene assemblage was different from modern snake fauna of Cuba and was probably more diverse at genus level than it is now. Most of taxa revealed in El Abrón Cave were not previously known in the fossil record.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract