Nova Patricia Villa, Avilla Leonardo S, Oliveira Édison V
Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil.
An Acad Bras Cienc. 2015 Mar;87(1):193-208. doi: 10.1590/0001-3765201520140229.
The present study acknowledges the diversity of fossil marsupials from the Gruta dos Moura cave, as well as environmental and climatic aspects during the Quaternary. The results show that this is the largest diversity of Pleistocene marsupials recorded in a single cave: Didelphis albiventris, D. aurita, Gracilinanus agilis, G. microtarsus, Marmosa murina, Monodelphis brevicaudata, M. domestica and Sairadelphys tocantinensis. Furthermore, the described specimens are also part of the only fossil assemblage unequivocally referable to the late Pleistocene. Paleontological studies suggest an intimate association with dry and open environments with high abundance of water sources. Since most of the identified taxa are characteristic of open forests and gallery forests, this could represent the actual environment around the Gruta dos Moura cave. Recent studies identified sympatric occurrences between species from open and dry environments and species from humid forests that were identified among our material and are characteristic of humid regions. Therefore, these species could inhabit gallery forests and capons, or even ecotones, inside a dry and open environment. Moreover, the extinction of Sairadelphys could also indicate that the climatic and environmental conditions changed or that the past environment was more heterogeneous than the current environment of the region.
本研究认识到来自格鲁塔斯·杜斯·穆拉洞穴的有袋类化石的多样性，以及第四纪期间的环境和气候方面。结果表明，这是在单个洞穴中记录到的更新世有袋类动物的最大多样性：白腹袋鼬、南美灰狐、敏捷 Gracilinanus、小眼 Gracilinanus、长尾袋鼩、短尾袋貂、家短尾袋貂和托坎廷斯袋鼬。此外，所描述的标本也是唯一明确可追溯到晚更新世的化石组合的一部分。古生物学研究表明，它们与水源丰富的干燥开阔环境密切相关。由于大多数已鉴定的分类群是开阔森林和长廊林的特征，这可能代表了格鲁塔斯·杜斯·穆拉洞穴周围的实际环境。最近的研究在我们的材料中发现了来自开阔干燥环境的物种和来自潮湿森林的物种之间的同域分布情况，这些物种是潮湿地区的特征。因此，这些物种可能栖息在干燥开阔环境中的长廊林和小块林地，甚至生态交错带。此外，托坎廷斯袋鼬的灭绝也可能表明气候和环境条件发生了变化，或者过去的环境比该地区目前的环境更加多样化。
