Ronwolffia

Ronwolffia Temporal range: Late Oligocene (Rupelian-Chattian) ~29–21 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cingulata
Family:	†
Genus:	†Ronwolffia Shockey 2017
Type species
Ronwolffia pacifica Shockey 2017

Ronwolffia is an extinct genus of horned armadillo (), distantly related to the modern species of armadillos and to the extinct glyptodonts. It lived during the Oligocene in what is now the in Bolivia.^[1]

History[]

Remains associated with Ronwolffia were originally collected in 1964 by Alberto Elier in the They were only described in 2008, in two studies by Shockey and Anaya^[2] (for postcranial elements, assigned to Cf. Peltephilus sp.), and by Kearney and Shockey (for the cranial remains), the last one concerning the future holotype of the genus, YPM VPPU 020700. Both studies were the basis of a later study by Shockey in 2017 creating the new genus and species Ronwolffia pacifica for the large peltephilid remains from the formation, while the remaining material was assigned to Peltephilidae sp. indet.^[1]

Ronwolffia was named to honour Ronald Wolff, a member of the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida. The species name, pacifica, meaning in Latin "pacific", was given to reflect the new consideration on the alimentation of Peltephilidae.^[3][1]

Description[]

Ronwolffia was a medium-sized peltephilid, sharing the U-shaped dental arcade, the robust skull with eight strong teeth in each row that caused the family to be formerly considered as carnivores, the short rostrum, and the wide osteoderms, whose most recognizable were the two horn-like osteoderms in the tip of the cranium. Its skull was as broad but shorter than the skull of the giant armadillo. Its diagnostic features from other peltephilids involved a longer palate than , a smaller sagittal crest than Peltephilus strepens, and it had an arched anterior dental arcade and a flat cranial vault. It was roughly the same size than the later Peltephilus atrox. Its auditory bulla was still incompletely ossified compared to later species^[1]

Paleoecology[]

Ronwolffia pacifica may have shared its environment with at least one other still undescribed species of peltephilid. Deseadan rocks from the also yielded the oldest cranial remains of Dasypodidae and fossils of Glyptodonts, Mylodontidae, Megalonychidae, and of the stem-sloth Pseudoglyptodon. Primates such as Branisella were also present, as well as various rodents such as the agoutis , and and the Octodontidae and . The herbivorous fauna was completed by various Meridiungulates, such as astrapotheres, Pyrotherium, the Proterotheriidae , the Macraucheniidae , the Typotheres , Prohegetotherium and , two species of the Leontiniidae , the Notohippidae , and Rhynchippus, and the Toxodontidae . Marsupials were also present, such as the predatory sparassodonts , Pharsophorus, , and , the Caenolestidae and , and the .^[2]

While once believed to have been active predators, due in part to their canine-like teeth, it is now commonly believed that the Peltephilidae were burrowing animals, searching the soil for tubers, and perhaps occasionally eating carrion.^[3]

References[]