A new species of small Camelidae from the Late Pleistocene of Brazil

Abstract

Camelids have been known in South America since the late Pliocene, where they arrived from North America as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). They became extinct in North America by the late Pleistocene, while surviving in the Southern Cone of South America and in high altitudes of the Andean region. Extinct South American camelids are generally included in the genera Palaeolama and Hemiauchenia, members of which are larger than modern species. We describe here a new, small species of the genus Hemiauchenia based on late Pleistocene specimens previously assigned to Lama guanicoe. This specimen lived in northeastern Brazil at 22 345–21 907 cal a bp, and had a diet composed mainly of C3 plants.

Paleoenvironmental changes in the Brazilian Pampa based on carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis of Pleistocene camelid tooth enamel

“…The Brazilian fossils of camelids are relatively scarce compared to other species of the Pleistocene megafauna. Fossils of Palaeolama major (Liais 1872) are known from northern, northeastern and southeastern Brazil, Hemiauchenia mirim Greco et al 2022 was discovered recently in the northeastern region of the country (Greco et al 2022), whereas in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Fig. 1A) fossils of Hemiauchenia paradoxa Gervais and Ameghino, 1880, V. vicugna, and L. guanicoe were found (Scherer, 2013).…”