Abstract
We present new records of occurrence of Schneider’s Dwarf Caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus and extend its geographical distribution. Eight individuals were caught in the following locations: Sangue River, in the municipality of Campo Novo dos Parecis, Claro River and Marapi River, in the municipality of São José do Rio Claro, and tributaries of the Juruena River, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. These records extend the geographical distribution of the species nearly 500 km south of the limit given in published range maps.
Highlights
The geographical distribution of Schneider’s Dwarf Caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider, 1801), covers 10 countries; in Brazil it is considered to be restricted to the Amazon basin (Magnusson and Campos 2010)
The distribution of the species given in the IUCN Red List (IUCN 1996) is similar to that given by Magnusson and Yamakoshi (1985), who excluded the only record of the species from deep in the Cerrado biome
Confirmation of the identity of captured specimens was made by William Magnusson based on some diagnostic characters of Paleosuchus trigonatus given in Magnusson (1992a, 1992b) that differentiate it from its congener Paleosuchus palpebrosus: usually one row of enlarged occipital scutes; two rows of enlarged sacral scutes (Fig. 1C; four in P. palpebrosus), and enlarged scutes of the double caudal crest project laterally
Summary
The geographical distribution of Schneider’s Dwarf Caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider, 1801), covers 10 countries; in Brazil it is considered to be restricted to the Amazon basin (Magnusson and Campos 2010). Campos et al (2013) provided new records, but those did not extend the species range, and the southern limit on their map largely corresponded to the limit of forest in the contact zone between the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. We report occurrence records that extend the known geographical distribution of P. trigonatus.
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