title: The Dasypodidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Urso Fóssil Cave (Quaternary), Parque Nacional de Ubajara, State of Ceará, Brazil: paleoecological and taxonomic aspects.
abstract: This paper deals with xenarthrans osteoderms assigned to Dasypus aff. D. novemcinctus, Euphractus sexcinctus and Cabassous sp. The material was collected in subsurface, from 0.10 to 0.60 m in the Urso Fóssil Cave, Parque Nacional de Ubajara, State of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. The ages of sediment samples from levels 4 and 5 (depths of 0.40 and 0.50 m) were determined by thermoluminescence technique, and indicated ages of 8,000 and 8,200 years BP for each layer respectively. The presence in these layers of early Holocene xenarthrans taxa can contribute to the understanding of the biotic evolution of the northwest region of Ceará during the last 10,000 years. Two of the three identified taxa still occur in the region: Dasypus novemcinctus and Euphractus sexcinctus. The Dasypodidae fauna here reported includes animals with generalist feeding habits and current wide geographical distribution. It is suggested, therefore, that the climatic and environmental conditions in the early Holocene were very similar the actual ones, and that the absence of Cabassous may be conditioned to other factors, such as anthropogenic action and loss of habitat by fragmentation of the vegetation.
authors: Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Geociencias, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil.
authors: Paulo V
authors: PV
authors: Oliveira
authors: Museu de Ciencias Naturais, Fundacao Zoobotanica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.
authors: Ana Maria
authors: AM
authors: Ribeiro
authors: Laboratorio de Paleontologia, Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil.
authors: Edison V
authors: EV
authors: Oliveira
authors: Laboratorio de Paleontologia, Museu Dom Jose, Universidade Estadual Vale do Acarau, Sobral, CE, Brasil.
authors: Maria Somália S
authors: MS
authors: Viana
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D005580:Fossils; D010163:Paleontology; D004490:Xenarthra / Q000145:classification*