Plio-Pleistocene Crocodylus (Crocodylia) from southwestern Costa Rica

Abstract

Mammal and reptile fossils were observed as a lag deposit along a 50 m stretch of a small creek in the Puntarenas Province of southwestern Costa Rica. The fossil deposit, known as El Indio, dates to the late Pliocene – early Pleistocene. Skeletal elements of a crocodylian have characteristics that indicate they belong to a species of Crocodylus (Reptilia, Crocodylia). Crocodylian remains were common and recovered with turtles and extinct forms of gomphothere proboscideans, horse, camel, ground sloth (Eremotherium), and pampatheres (extinct giant armadillos, Holmesina and Pampatherium). The record of the crocodylian from El Indo indicates the importance of this new fossil locality and presents the first reported Plio-Pleistocene remains of Crocodylus from Costa Rica. Although Crocodylus is known to inhabit much of the coastal and large riverine systems of Costa Rica today, the remains from El Indio are the first evidence to indicate that this crocodylian has at least a two million year record in Central America and this important corridor between North and South America.