Late Holocene armadillos (Mammalia, Dasypodidae) of the Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina: Zooarchaeology, diagnostic characters and their paleozoological relevance

Abstract

The results of zooarchaeological study carried out on the bone remains of armadillos (Mammalia, Dasypodidae) from four Sierras of Córdoba (Argentina) archaeological sites were presented. The radiocarbon dates place chronologically their occupation at the last millennium of the Late Holocene (ca. 970 ± 110 and 290 ± 37 14C BP). Four taxa were identified: Chaetophractus villosus, Chaetophractus vellerosus, Euphractus sp. and Dasypus sp. The diagnostic characters of their bony dermal scutes or osteoderms were described in order to facilitate their taxonomical identification in other modern collection and/or fossil assemblages. C. villosus and C. vellerosus show a current distribution in the study area, while Euphractus sp. and Dasypus sp. are absent in the Sierras of Córdoba. Euphractus was determined on the basis of a fragmented movable osteoderm in C.Pun.39. Their presence may be a response to an increase of precipitation and temperature associated with the “Medieval Warm Period”. The record of Dasypus sp. during the “Little Ice Age” contrasts negatively with its potential as an indicator of warm and humid condition, showing either their adaptive plasticity or the biological fragmentation of the mountain environment under paleoclimatic conditions. Finally, the possibility that the presence of Euphractus and Dasypus is due to anthropogenic transport was considered.