The Deseado Formation of PatagoniaLoomis, Frederic Brewster
Science
The Deseado Formation of Patagonia
Loomis, Frederic Brewster
Paleontology -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
While rare, this genus is well known from the Santa Cruz, and is
characterized by the curious development of the head shield, which
consists of nineteen or twenty-one definitely arranged head plates, the
anterior ones being developed into horn-like projections. The plates
of the carapace are wide, thin, and unique in each having two to four
wide shallow pits on the exposed surface. We found the genus rare, only
two isolated plates turning up. From the Deseado material Ameghino has
made three species: _P. protervus_, of very large size; _P. undulatus_,
of moderate size, with the median figure accentuated and ending in two
pits and with piliferous depressions on the margin; and _P. depressus_,
of the same size as the foregoing, with a faint central figure, often
four pits on the exposed surface and no piliferous pits on the margin.
We found but one species, one plate of which combines characters of
both the last two as described, so that I feel that there should be but
two species, _P. protervus_ and _P. undulatus_.
=Peltephilus undulatus= Ameghino
[Illustration: Fig. 133. Two movable plates—natural size.]
P. undulatus Amegh., 1897, Bol. Inst. Geog. Argen., t. 18, p. 509.
P. depressus Amegh., 1897, Bol. Inst. Geog. Argen., t. 18, p. 510.
One of the plates we found has the rough surface, obscure figure, two
pits on the median part of the surface, and marginal piliferous pits,
of which the first two features are characters of _P. undulatus_,
the last is the feature of _P. depressus_, so I have combined the
two species. A second plate does not have the marginal pits but is
otherwise the same. I expect considerable variation in the pattern on
plates from different regions of the carapace.
=Peltephilus protervus= Ameghino
P. protervus, Amegh., 1897, Bol. Inst. Geog. Argen., t. 18, p. 509.
This species, of which we found no representative, is very large. The
plates of the type have two pits on the anterior part of the exposed
surface and none on the margin. A movable plate measures 41 mm. long by
22 mm. wide. One of the horn-like plates from the cephalic shield is 35
mm. long, by 30 mm. wide, and has a height of 44 mm.
GLYPTODONTIA
This suborder is most sparingly represented, apparently on account
of unfavorable habitat. Ameghino has described a few fragments of
the carapaces of these forms, making the genera, _Palaeopeltis_, and
_Glyptatelus_, both pre-Santa Cruz genera.
=Palaeopeltis= Ameghino
Palaeopeltis Amegh., 1895, Bol. Inst. Geog. Argen., t. 15, p. 659.
The basis of this genus is a few plates of a glyptodon-like animal of
considerable size, but the plates are without ornamentation. This form
Ameghino considers intermediate between glyptodonts and armadilloes.
I feel that there is too little of the skeleton known to justify this
conclusion, especially as glyptodonts of a considerably higher grade of
specialization are contemporaries of this form.
[Illustration: Fig. 134. P. inornatus: a single plate—natural size.]
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