Morphological Diversity in the Postcranial Skeleton of Casamayoran (? Middle to Late Eocene) Notoungulata and Foot Posture in Notoungulates
Author
SHOCKEY, BRUCE J.
Author
FLYNN, JOHN J.
text
American Museum Novitates
2007
2007-12-12
3601
1
28
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/0003-0082%282007%293601%5B1%3AMDITPS%5D2.0.CO%3B2
journal article
10.1206/0003-0082(2007)3601[1:MDITPS]2.0.CO;2
0003-0082
5389024
Thomashuxleya externa
Ameghino, 1901
Material:
AMNH
28905 consists of many postcranial elements of a single individual that
Simpson (1936a)
referred to
Thomashuxleya externa
. It was found at Cañadón Vaca and was the primary source of postcranials for the skeletal reconstruction of
Thomashuxleya
(Simpson, 1938: fig. 1, 1967: fig. 35), which also included
AMNH
28698 and 28447 for skull and jaw morphology. Postcranials of ‘‘contemporaneous, closely related animals’’ (
Simpson, 1936: 10
) from Cañadon Vaca were also used in the reconstruction. The ‘‘closely related animals’’ he referred to were
AMNH
28904 and 28906, which we refer to
Anisotemnus distentus
(above) and
Pleurostylodon similis
(below), respectively.
We refer
AMNH
28653 to
T. externa
as these associated elements are indistinguishable from homologous elements of
AMNH
28905. This specimen is composed of postcranial elements only, including a partial right forelimb, which includes a distal humerus, complete radius, ulna lacking only the distal region, unciform, and Mc
V
.
Description:
AMNH
28905 was associat- ed with cranial remains ‘‘too extremely disintegrated to be worth restoration or even collecting, but permitted certain field identification as a species of
Thomashuxleya
’’ (
Simpson, 1936: 1
). Of the postcranial remains available from Cañadón Vaca, these are the largest; they are similar in size to the cranial and dental remains of
Thomashuxleya externa
, supporting referral of these remains to that taxon.