Abstract
Abstract. During the mid-19th century, the German naturalist Hermann Karsten conducted a 12-year exploration (1844–1856) in the territories of Ecuador, New Granada (now Colombia) and Venezuela, allowing him to produce important botanic, geographic and geologic descriptions with valuable information that permits us to refer to him as a pioneer in many of these topics. With his return to Europe, abundant geological, paleontological and living plant specimens were brought and housed in European museums and botanical gardens. The Karsten collection included an important invertebrate collection from the Cretaceous of the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, which was studied and published by himself and the renowned German paleontologist Leopold von Buch, filling a large void in the knowledge about ancients faunas. H. Karsten's vertebrate collection was never illustrated or subjected to a detailed taxonomic study, being mentioned in scientific publications in a repetitive manner and with incorrect taxonomic and provenance information. More than 160 years after they were collected, we carried out a taxonomic revision of all H. Karsten's vertebrate specimens from Colombia and Venezuela, which are housed in the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. These specimens are represented by cranial and postcranial elements of megafauna, which include Megatheriidae, Mylodontidae and Glyptodontidae (Xenarthra), Toxodontidae (Notoungulata), Gomphotheriidae (Proboscidea), and many other indeterminate mammal remains. This revision is intended to clarify the taxonomy and provenance of the specimens, emphasizing the historical importance of this fossil collection and its significance for the paleontology of the region.
Highlights
Dr Karl Hermann Gustav Wilhelm Karsten (1817–1908) (Fig. 1) was a Prussian naturalist from Stralsund, who, using his own economic resources, conducted a 12-year long exploration in the Neotropical territories of Venezuela (1844–1847 and 1848–1852) and the Republic of New Granada ( Colombia) and Ecuador (1852–1856) (Röhl, 1944; Alert, 1999)
One possible tooth fragment referred in the MB.Ma. catalog as “Toxodonta” (MB.Ma. 33517) from San Juan de Los Morros and a postcranial element assigned to a pisiform (MB.Ma. 33542) of indeterminate laterality (Fig. 7a–d) from the Paraguaná Peninsula (Tables 1–2) are the only specimens assigned to this group in the H
Karsten collection that we could trace, are those assigned to Glyptotherium cf
Summary
Dr Karl Hermann Gustav Wilhelm Karsten (1817–1908) (Fig. 1) was a Prussian naturalist from Stralsund (northern Germany), who, using his own economic resources, conducted a 12-year long exploration in the Neotropical territories of Venezuela (1844–1847 and 1848–1852) and the Republic of New Granada ( Colombia) and Ecuador (1852–1856) (Röhl, 1944; Alert, 1999). Karsten as an apprentice in pharmacy and natural sciences was useful during his explorations in South America, which resulted in detailed descriptions of botany, entomology, geography and geology (Karsten, 1886; Röhl, 1944; Hedberg, 1974; Alert, 1999; Aalto, 2015) During his travels through Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador, H. Karsten was acquiring much geological information during his travels, especially about Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks, observations and descriptions that are all the more remarkable because it is considered that he was primarily a botanist (Hedberg, 1974) His geological contributions (Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador) included about 21 publications (summarized in Hedberg, 1974, 36–43), with valuable contributions on geomorphology, geological cartography, mineralogy, orogeny, paleontology, petrography and volcanology, among others subjects, Karsten being a regional pioneer in many of these topics. Clarifying the provenance of specimens and discussing the historical importance of this collection
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