Kelenkura

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Kelenkura
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cingulata
Family: Chlamyphoridae
Subfamily: †Glyptodontinae
Genus: †Kelenkura
Barasoain et al. 2022
Species
  • K. castroi Barasoain et al. 2022

Kelenkura is an

armadillos. It was a medium-sized South American animal, distantly related to Doedicurus. Fossils of this genus were recovered in the Arroyo Chasicó Formation and in the Loma de Las Tapias Formation of Argentina in rocks dating back to the Late Miocene epoch.[1]

Discovery and etymology

The presence of glyptodonts in the Arroyo Chasicó Formation was known from fragmentary remains since 1926. In 2005, a new, more complete specimen was unearthed from a river bed in the

osteoderms. They assigned the skeleton to the already existing species Eosclerocalyptus, and estimated it as Huayquerian.[2]
In 2011, new glyptodontid remains from the Loma de Las Tapias Formation, known as PVSJ-366, and including an almost complete crania and a fragment of the left femur, were tentatively assignated by Victor H. Contreras and Juan A. Baraldo to
junior synonym of Eosclerocalyptus.[3]
In 2016–2017, Cristian G. Oliva examined a number of fossil fragments from the Arroyo Chasicó Formation and suggested the existence of a still undescribed new species of glyptodont from the locality. Finally, in 2022, a new study conducted by Daniel Barasoain et al contested the referral of the Arroyo Chasicó material to Eosclerocalyptus, and named the new genus and species Kelenkura castroi, with PV-UNS-260 as holotype. Other material previously recovered from the Arroyo Chasicó Formation and the Loma de Las Tapias Formation, including PVSJ-366, were assigned to the genus. The holotype material was also reevaluated as belonging to the Chasicoan period.[1]

The genus name, Kelenkura was constructed on the words këlen, which means "tail", and kura, meaning "rock", in the local Mapuche language, referencing the shape of its tail. The species epithet, castroi, honors D. R. Castro, who participated in the discovery of PVSJ-366, one of the complete skulls assigned to the genus.[1]

Description

The skull of Kelenkura was elongated, with a length of 211 mm for the holotype, with an underdevelloped

molars were trilobed.[1] The skull was protected by a head shield made of relatively large osteoderms similar to its carapace, which were poorly preserved.[2]

The well preserved, 295 mm long femur of Kelenkura was intermediate in shape between ancient and more modern genus of austral glyptodonts. Kelenkura's total weight in its lifetime was estimated at 160 kg.[1] The carapace, mainly known from the holotype, was made of 35 rows of osteoderms forming a repeated rosette pattern, and was 910 mm high and 1050 mm long.[2] The tail was protected by a caudal armor, composed of caudal rings made of two rows of osteoderm and finished by a completely fused and ornamented caudal tube, known from five complete specimen from the Arroyo Chasicó Formation, and described by its namers as the earliest fully modern caudal tube known for a glyptodont.

Phylogeny

While being originally recovered as a specimen of Eosclerocalyptus tapinocephalus, Kelenkura was erected as an entirely new genus and species on the basis of morphological differences and an earlier age. As a new genus, it stands as the sister group of all the other late neogene and quaternary glyptodonts from the so-called "Austral lineage", whose late members are distinguished from every other mammals by a characteristic caudal tube. Depicted below is a reproduction of the phylogenetic tree presented by Barasoain et al (2022) for glyptodonts, including the newly described Kelenkura. [1]

Glyptodontinae 
"Austral lineage" 

Palaeoecology

The Arroyo Chasicó formation was, in the Miocene, on the tip of a peninsula bordered by the

Meridiungulates were also present in the formation, with Litopterna genera such as the Macraucheniidae Cullinia and the Proterotheriidae Neobrachytherium, while notoungulates were represented by genera such as the large-sized late surviving Homalodotheriidae Chasicotherium, the Toxodontidae Paratrigodon, the Interatheriidae Protypotherium, the Mesotheriidae Typotheriopsis, and the Hegetotheriidae Paedotherium, Pseudohegetotherium and Hemihegetotherium
. The largest
terror bird Psilopterus.[4][5]

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 245945029
    .
  2. ^
    doi:10.13130/2039-4942/6358
    .
  3. ISBN 978-9872689001.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
    )
  4. ISBN 978-0253020949
    .
  5. ^ Fidalgo, F.; Tonni, E. P.; Porro, N.; Laza, J.H. (1987). "Geología del área de la Laguna Chasicó (Partido de Villarino, Provincia de Buenos Aires) y aspectos bioestratigráficos relacionados". Rev Asoc Geol Argentina. 42: 407–416.
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