A Puma concolor (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Middle-Late Holocene landscapes of the Brazilian Northeast (Bahia): submerged cave deposits and stable isotopes - 04/10/20

Doi : 10.1016/j.geobios.2020.06.007

Leandro de Oliveira Salles ^a,^b,⁎ , Fernando Araújo Perini ^c, Carlos Rodrigues de Moraes Neto ^a, Fernando Lencastre Sicuro ^d,^e, Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales ^f, Patrícia Gonçalves Guedes ^a,^g, Fernando Verassani Laureano ^h, Emílio Manuel Calvo ^a,ⁱ, Luiz Flamarion Barbosa de Oliveira ^a, José Luis Passos Cordeiro ^j, Víctor Adrián Pérez-Crespo ^k, Pedro Morales-Puente ^k, Luciano Jorge Serejo dos Anjos ^l, Francisco Boavista Pontual ^a, Kayo Ritter da Costa ^a, Caio Márcio Sorrentino de Freitas Farias dos Santos ^m, Ricardo Tadeu Lopes ^m, Luís Henrique Sapiensa Almeida ⁿ, Leonardo Souza Lobo ^a, Peter Mann Toledo ^o
^a Departamento de Vertebrados (Mastozoologia), Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (MN-UFRJ), Quinta da Boa Vista s/no., Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20940-040, Brazil
^b Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy), American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA
^c Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
^d Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil
^e Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies & Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
^f Laboratorio de Arqueozoología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Mexico
^g Instituto Resgatando o Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
^h Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Pontifícia Católica de Minas Gerais (PUCMinas), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
ⁱ Grupo Espeleológico de Goiás (GRECO), Brazil
^j Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Brazil
^k Universidad Nacional Autónoma do Mexico, Instituto de Geologia (IGUNAM), Mexico
^l Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Campus de Parauapebas, Pará, Brazil
^m Nuclear Instrumentation Laboratory, COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Horacio de Macedo, 2030 Bloco I Sala 133, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-914, Brazil
ⁿ Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IGEO-UFRJ), Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 274 Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-916, Brazil
^o Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), São José dos Campos 12227-010, Brazil

^⁎Corresponding author.

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Abstract

Puma concolor is currently widespread in South America, but its fossil record is still poorly known in the Continent, particularly in Brazil. Here we report the find of a nearly complete skeleton of P. concolor recovered from underwater Quaternary deposits at the Impossível-Ioiô Cave System, Chapada Diamantina (Bahia, Brazil). The P. concolor remains were found disarticulated but piled together; they are in general quite well preserved. Radiocarbon dating from a tooth sample (upper carnassial) indicates a Middle-Late Holocene age of ca. 4 ka BP. A series of comparative morphometric analyses suggest that the specimen is a male and shares similar size proportions to extant specimens in the region. Isotopic analyses made with a tooth sample indicate a diet largely based on C3 feeding herbivores, potentially associated to landscapes predominantly covered by Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest, similar to the Present-day Caatinga vegetation. The δ¹⁸O outcome value of −3.4‰ and the modeled puma’s negative trend in adaptability towards the present (after 6 ka) seem to be consistent with the hypothesized Middle-Holocene (∼4 ka) shift in climatic tendencies in the Brazilian Northeast from a more relatively humid environment to a drier climate with longer drought periods, presenting severe semiarid conditions somewhat similar to the precolonial conditions. Cave surroundings fit well with the description of the present progressive trend of changes in physiognomy related to land-use and associated with processes of fragmentation and desertification in the Caatinga.

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Keywords : Puma, Skeleton, Cave, Caatinga biome, Holocene, Brazil