The First Quaternary Record of the Rodent Akodon kadiweu Brandão, Percequillo, D'Elía, Paresque, & Carmignotto, 2021 (Rodentia: Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae).

Abstract

Rodents of the genus Akodon comprise 41 extant species, and are considered the most diverse genus of the tribe Akodontini. The most recently described extant species is Akodon kadiweu, known exclusively from Serra da Bodoquena, a karstic region located in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. Some sub-fossil and fossil specimens of Akodon have been reported in recent years for Brazil, but most remain unidentified at the species level. Here we examine the identity of Quaternary specimens of Akodon sp. from the limestone cave Nossa Senhora Aparecida, located in Serra da Bodoquena. Quantitative characters allowed the distinction of Akodon sp. specimens from smaller and larger congeners, and skull qualitative characters of nasal, interorbital region, supraorbital margins, zygomatic notches, zygomatic plate, incisive foramina, mesopterygoid fossa, mandible and molars allowed to identify these individuals as A. kadiweu. Our results revealed the first known past representatives of Akodon to be recorded in Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as western Brazil.