Late Cenozoic vertebrates from Honduras and El Salvador

Abstract

ABSTRACT The subhumid Pacific slopes of El Salvador and Honduras contain a valuable record of late Cenozoic terrestrial vertebrates. Vast ignimbrite flows, mainly of mid-Miocene age, and subsequent block-faulting and basin-filling provide a substantial sequence of late Cenozoic tuffaceous sediments. This paper discusses the geological setting and faunal content of six local faunas ranging from the late Miocene through the late Pleistocene. Many other more limited late Pleistocene sites are known throughout Honduras and El Salvador. The late Miocene fauna includes no families not already known from North America at temperate latitudes, but does indicate an endemic turtle genus, Rhinoclemmys, and endemic mammal species Pliohippus hondurensis and Rhynchotherium blicki, and a much earlier record of brevirostrine proboscideans than in temperate North America. Although no Pliocene faunas are known, substantial numbers of previously South American taxa appear in the early Pleistocene. By the late Pleistocene, in...