Roedores do Quaternário de Minas Gerais e Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

Paleoecological studies have been increasingly used to determine the weather in the past. Among all work views, the mammal fauna studies have widely contributed to paleoenvironments knowledge and the climate dynamics. The most common environmental reconstruction works are based on diversity analysis and the species richness, dental morphology and community ecology. Many papers on mammals fauna of the Brazilian Quaternary were made during several years of study, even though few of them talk about paleoecology and ambient reconstruction. The rodents are a great part of the mammal fauna of the South American continent, representing over 20% of the mastofauna known species. By representing specific ecological requirements, rodents are widely used to paleoecological studies and paleoenvironments reconstructions. Studies on fossils rodents are rare in Brazil and the only known fauna is Lagoa Santa and sites in Rio Grande do Sul. This study has the objective of increasing knowledge on Minas Gerais and Bahia Quarternary rodents, infer the paleoambient of the studied region and the paleobiogeography aspects of the identified species. Skeletal fragments from the micromammal fauna of two sites (Toca da Boa Vista-BA and Lapa do Dragão-MG) were studied. By the end of the work, nine thousand fragments were analyzed, in wich 400 were taxonomic relevants for rodents. Nine taxons were identified, and the analysis showed great taxonomic diversity and paleoclimates between both sites comparing to now a days.