Taxonomic revision of the genus Cabassous McMurtrie, 1831 (Cingulata Chlamyphoridae), with revalidation of Cabassous squamicaudis (Lund, 1845)
Author
Feijó, Anderson
0000-0002-4643-2293
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10001, China. andefeijo @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4643 - 2293;
andefeijo@gmail.com
Author
Anacleto, Teresa Cristina
Coordenação de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Caixa Postal 08, 78690 - 000, Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso, Brazil.
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-05-19
4974
1
47
78
journal article
6239
10.11646/zootaxa.4974.1.2
f5bc42a3-becd-422f-ad3d-4759a380c7f9
1175-5326
4773355
BBD9649F-D877-40DE-B606-04CFFAE4EA30
Cabassous chacoensis
Wetzel, 1980
Chacoan naked-tailed armadillo
Xenurus gymnurus
:
Lahille, 1899:204
. Not
Tatus gymnurus
Olfers 1818: 220
.
Cabassous loricatus
:
Yepes, 1935:441
. Part; not
Cabassous loricatus
J. A.
Wagner, 1855: 174-176
.
Cabassous loricatus
:
Cabrera, 1958:219
. Part; not
Cabassous loricatus
J.
A Wagner, 1855
.
Cabassous loricatus
:
Moeller, 1968:420
. Part; not
Cabassous loricatus
J. A.
Wagner, 1855
.
Cabassous chacoensis
Wetzel, 1980: 335
.
Type
locality: “
Paraguay
, Depto.
Presidente Hayes
,
5-7 km
W
Estancia Juan de Zalazar
”.
Types
.
The
holotype
(
CM 67067
) is an adult male collected on
28 July 1974
, no collector listed, original numbers PWM 247 and
UCM
[originally cited as CONN] 16891.
It
consists of a stuffed skin, skull, and a carcass preserved in alcohol.
Wetzel (1980)
listed
two paratypes
: an adult (
CONN 16982
) female [erroneously cited as male in the original publication] collected in the type locality, catalog number PWM 246; and a male (
USNM 531004
) collected in
Filadelfia
,
Boquerón
,
Paraguay
.
Type locality
.
The
holotype
was collected at “
5-7km
W of Estancia Juan de Zalazar
,
Departament
Presidente Hayes
,
Paraguay
” (
Wetzel 1980
), in an area of thorn forest and mixed grasses in the dry
Chaco
.
Diagnosis
. This species can be easily differentiated from other congeneric taxa by its much smaller ears (
Figure 6
), limbs and sides of the body hairy, and its overall smaller size (
Table 2
). The scutes on the cephalic shield (45-52) exhibit a concentric organization with a large and central scute surrounded by smaller polygonal scutes (
Figure 6
). The cheek region is usually naked or with very small scutes. The carapace is brownish with 11-13 movable bands and hairy on its edges. The tail is overall naked with only sparse scutes and hairs.
C. chacoensis
exhibits wide and marked curved zygomatic arcs, its teeth are anteroposteriorly constricted, making them wider than long. The body of the mandible is well curved and the ramus shows a more vertical profile (
Figure 4d
).
Geographic distribution
.
Cabassous chacoensis
occurs from western
Paraguay
to central
Argentina
, comprising mainly the Gran
Chaco region
. However, given that the species is rarely recorded (
Chebez 1994
), its range may be larger than it is currently known. For example, some isolated records in
Argentina
also include the Yungas (
Cirignoli
et al.
2019
) and montane grassland High Monte in
La Rioja
(Monguillot & Miatello 2010).
Wetzel (1980)
listed
Brazil
(“
Mato Grosso
”) as part of the distribution of
Cabassous chacoensis
, but this was based on a specimen obtained from the Buenos Aires Zoo in 1904. Since then, no additional record has been reported, leading several authors to not include it as part of the Brazilian fauna (
Wetzel
et al.
2008
,
Hayssen 2014b
,
Brandão
et al.
2019
;
Abreu
et al
. 2020
;
Quintela
et al.
2020
). Nevertheless,
C. chacoensis
has been registered in
Paraguay
about
220 km
from the Brazilian border. It is therefore an open question whether the species went locally extinct, has gone unnoticed for over a century, or never occurred in
Brazil
; in this latter case the
Paraguay
River might represent the barrier between the two countries. On the other hand, the absence of
C. chacoensis
in
Bolivia
might reflect the lack of studies on this genus given that the dry Chaco extends northward to the Bolivian east portion (
Figure 8
). Among all specimens of
Cabassous
examined in this study, only three were collected in
Bolivia
.
Remarks
.
Hutterer & Peters (2010)
listed an adult female (ZFMK 60.317, field number 448) housed at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn,
Germany
as a
paratype
of
C. chacoensis
. This specimen is represented by a skin and skull and was collected in Filadelfia,
Boqueron
,
Paraguay
by J. Unger on
10 December 1958
. However, although
Wetzel (1980)
listed this individual among the material examined, he did not include it as a
paratype
.