Taxonomic revision of the Dasypus kappleri complex, with revalidations of Dasypus pastasae (Thomas, 1901) and Dasypus beniensis Lönnberg, 1942 (Cingulata, Dasypodidae)
Author
Feijó, Anderson
Author
Cordeiro-Estrela, Pedro
text
Zootaxa
2016
4170
2
271
297
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4170.2.3
5f293e28-4f71-4042-a192-6a23feb15b70
1175-5326
265398
9E3AE604-3656-4B0A-B09A-C970200BF5F6
Dasypus beniensis
Lönnberg, 1942
Dasypus kappleri beniensis
Lönnberg, 1942
:49
(original description)
Holotype
.
Lönnberg
(1942)
mentioned a female adult specimen collected on
25 October 1937
by
A.M. Olalla
, but no collection number was cited.
According
to
Wetzel
&
Mondolfi
(1979:56)
, the
holotype
is number
NHR
46
(
Swedish Museum
of
Natural History
,
Stockholm
), nowadays recorded as
NRM
583386
(
Figure
11
).
Type
locality
. “[N]ear the confluence of
Rio
Madre de Dios
with Rio
Beni
, Victoria,
Bolivia
” (
Lönnberg, 1942:49
).
Anderson (1997:118)
stated that the
type
locality is “
3 km
from the left bank of río
Beni
and about
9 km
from confluence with río
Madre de Dios
”.
Etymology.
The name
beniensis
refers to the
type
locality.
Diagnosis.
Externally,
D. beniensis
resembles
D. pastasae
with rough scales on the pelvic shield and flattened scales in the proximal rings of the tail. Cranially, it possesses four unique character states: a much less prominent lateral palatine crest, a convex posterior margin of the palatine, a well-developed and smoothly curved lacrimal bone, and a pentagonal and weakly developed tentorial process of the parietals.
FIGURE 11.
Dorsal, ventral and lateral view of the skull and lateral view of mandible of the holotype of
Dasypus
beniensis
Lönnberg, 1942
(NRM 583386). Photo: Daniela Kalthoff.
Distribution.
Dasypus beniensis
is known from the right bank of the lower Amazon and Madeira rivers in
Brazil
and the right bank of
Madre de Dios
River in
Bolivia
(
Figure 12
). These three major rivers appear to represent geographic barriers for this species to the north, the south barrier seems to be dry forests and savannas in
Bolivia
(Chaco) and
Brazil
(Caatinga and Cerrado) (
Pennington et al. 2000
).
Measures.
Dasypus beniensis
is the largest of the three species in the
Dasypus kappleri
complex, with mean values that exceed those of
D. kappleri
and
D. pastasae
in 16 of the 24 cranial measures (
Table 4
).
Specimens
examined (locality numbers as in
Figure 12
).
BOLIVIA
: 1 (MNK sn).
BRAZIL
: 8 (MN 42853, MN 42854), 9 (
MZUSP 8950
), 15 (
MPEG 12331
), 16 (
UFMT 25
), 17 (
MPEG 4676
,
MPEG 4678
), 18 (
MZUSP 19973
,
MZUSP 19974
), 19 (
MPEG 8481
), 49 (
UFMT 302
); and photos of the
holotype
(NRM 583386).