Octodontoids (Hystricognathi, Rodentia, Mammalia) from Pampa Castillo, Chile, and how rodents inform early Miocene South American biochronology

Caviomorph rodents were diverse and abundant components of South American mammal communities since the late Eocene. Augmenting this diversity, we describe the octodontoids of Pampa Castillo, an early Miocene site from the Galera Formation in southern Chile (Aysén Region). Six genera and eight species of octodontoids are present, two of which are new: Dudumus berggreni sp. nov. and Caviocricetus guenekko sp. nov. The octodontoids from Pampa Castillo support assignment of this fauna to the Santacrucian SALMA, consistent with previous studies.
We conducted similarity analyses on eleven early–middle Miocene Patagonian rodent faunas using hierarchical clustering. Faunas generally fell within the three South American Land Mammal ‘Ages’ (SALMAs) to which they were traditionally assigned: Colhuehuapian, Santacrucian, and ‘post-Santacrucian’. The ‘Pinturan’ is a proposed biochronologic interval between the Colhuehuapian and Santacrucian. At the generic level, Pampa Castillo clustered with ‘Pintu..., Occurrences of caviomorph taxa were taken from the primary scientific literature.,