Faunas-locais de mamíferos pleistocênicos de Itapipoca/Ceará, Taperoá/Paraíba e Campina Grande/Paraíba. Estudo comparativo, bioestratinômico e paleoambiental

Abstract

Three Local Faunas (Itapipoca/CE, Taperoaand Campina Grande/PB), from Upper Pleistocene, were established on teeth and bones found inside depressions of crystaline rocks, usually called “tanks”. The Taperoa and Campina Grande faunas are located at almost the same latitude (7°15’S, 36º57'W e 7°11'S, 36°3'W, respectively). Both are very similar but less diversified than Itapipoca fauna, which is separated from the other faunas by 4° latitude. The three faunas have only five taxa in common: Eremotherium laurillardi, Haplomastodon waringi, Equus (Amerhippus) neogaeus, Hippidion principale and Palaeolama major. The other taxa present in each fauna are: Taperoa (Panochthus greslebini, Panochthus jaguaribensis, Felinae indet., Xenorhinotherium bahiense, Toxodontidae indet.); Campina Grande (Glossotherium sp.. Megalonychidae indet., Holmesina paulacoutoi, Panochthus greslebini, Felinae indet., Xenorhinotherium bahiense, Toxodontidae indet., Mazama gouazoubira) and Itapipoca (Scelidodon cuvieri, Nothrotherium magquinense, Xenocnus cearensis, Holmesina paulacoutoi, Glyptodon sp., Cerdocyon thous, Protocyon troglodites, Smilodon populator, Tayassu pecari, Mazama gouazoubira, Ozotoceros bezoarticus). Big and running animals are present in the three faunas, but none of them are inhabitants of humid habitats.This suggests that the area around the tanks was covered by savannas during the Upper Pleistocene. The comparison between the number of teeth and bones collected in the tanks, with the number that should be found in it, if all the a had died inside the tank, as long as the absence of complete skeletons, strenghten the hypothesis of the bones being carried into the tanks by floods.