A NEW ACAREMYID RODENT (CAVIOMORPHA, OCTODONTOIDEA) FROM SCARRITT POCKET, DESEADAN (LATE OLIGOCENE) OF PATAGONIA (ARGENTINA)

Octodontoidea is the most diverse caviomorph clade presently represented in South America by Octodontidae, Echimyidae, and Abrocomidae. Some evidence suggests that in the past they were taxonomically even more diverse, including several independent lineages with no modern representatives, sometimes considered as families. One of them is Acaremyidae, known until now from the Colhuehuapian-Colloncuran (early to early-middle Miocene) of Patagonia. Here we describe a new octodontoid rodent from the Deseadan (late Oligocene) of Scarritt Pocket (Patagonia): Changquin woodi, gen. et sp. nov. Cladistic analysis indicates that the new species is an acaremyid related to the Santacrucian (early Miocene) Sciamys. Acaremyidae was recovered as a monophyletic group. C. woodi, gen. et sp. nov., the oldest representative of Acaremyidae, extends the family biochron back to the late Oligocene, and indicates that acaremyids differentiated before the Deseadan. C. woodi represents the first Deseadan octodontoid displaying protohypsodont cheek teeth, showing that the Deseadan was a period of important diversification for octodontoids, as it was for the cavioids. C. woodi adds a new element to the faunal differences observed between Patagonian and Bolivian Deseadan faunas. A new U-Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) date (27.17 +/- 0.54 Ma) for Scarritt Pocket is provided.