CATALOGACION CRITICA DE ALGUNOS VERTEBRADOS FOSILES CHILENOS. IlI. LOS MEGATERIOIDEOS. SOBRE MEGATHERIUM MEDINAE PHILIPPI

Abstract

"After reviewing the materials preserved in the National Museum of Natural History of Santiago (from Ulloma, Bolivia; provinces of Tarapaca and Antofagasta, Chile), the authors make its comparative morphological analysis and conclude that all belong to a single species. Further, a taxonomic analysis conduce them to accept it as a good species of Megatherium; consequently, the denomination of Megatherium medinae, given by Philippi in 189.3, should also be accepted. The authors give a comparative diagnosis of the entity and discuss the real signification of the genus Eremotherium Hoffstetter, which could not, in their opinion, go beyond the specific or subgeneric level (in this case, within the genus Megatherium). The authors mention also the possibility that M. medinae agrees with M. tarijense, from Bolivia, and -with much prudence- perhaps with M. lundi, from Argentine and Uruguay. They sinonymyze, further, M. medinae and M. sundti, also a Philippi's species. The paper is completed with general accounts on chronological and ecological aspects. Of special interest is the discussion on the presence, within one of the skulls studied, of puparia of parasitic species of Diptera."