Solenodon paradoxus grooved incisors

Keeping up with the previous post, here’s a picture of the mandible of a Hispaniolan Solenodon. Notice that I have made an enlargement of the anterior part, outline in the top picture, to show the groove present on its second incisor. The red lines outline the borders of the groove. The specimen was collected in the Dominican Republic and is in the collection of the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History.

Answers to the mystery critter post

Congratulations to Ville Sinkkonen for guessing correctly the identity of the Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) and the genus of the mystery critter 2, which actually is the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) (full pictures below). I must apologize for taking sooo long in posting the answers, but I’m also adding some interesting facts about this critters, enjoy!!

Marabou storks are scavengers, but will also consume frogs, fish and mice; when stalking prey they rely mainly on their vision, but if needed also by tactolocation (Kahl, 1966). One observation made by Kahl (1966), is that along with other birds, marabou storks will wait near brushfires for escaping or injured prey. The skulls of an interesting group of pterosaurs, the azhdarchids, has been likened to marabou storks and other terrestrial stalkers, which together with other morphological evidence has implication for their paleoecology (Witton & Naish, 2008). More on those interesting pterosaurs here.

In addition to Leptoptilos crumeniferus from sub-Saharan Africa, there are two other species known, Leptoptilos javanicus from South East Asia and L. dubius from South Asia. An extinct larger form, Leptoptilus falconeri, from the Pliocene of Africa and South Asia, stood up to about 2 meters and might have been more terrestrial (had proportionately slightly smaller wings) (Louchart et al. 2005). Other fossil species include L. titan from the Pleistocene of Java and L. richae from the Late Miocene of Tunisia, additional species that have been recognize in the past from Asia or Africa have been synonimized mainly with L. falconeri (Louchart et al. 2005). More recently, Noriega & Cladera (2008) described Leptoptilos patagonicus from the Late Miocene of Argentina. This South American record expands not only the range of the genus, but also of the tribe Leptoptilini (op. cit.). It wouldn’t be surprising if these turn out in similar or younger age deposits around western and/or northern South America.

            Now on to Solenodon. There are only two extant species of solenodons, Solenodon paradoxus and S. cubanus from Hispaniola and Cuba respectively. According to studies on gene sequences of these living species, they seem to have diverged about 76 million years ago from their common ancestor with other eulipotyphlan insectivores, whereas divergence between the two species seem to have occurred about 25 million years ago (Roca et al. 2004). An interesting aspect of the dentition of Solenodon paradoxus is that one of the lower incisors (I₂) has a groove on the lingual side (here), which in the living animal serves for injecting venom (McDowell, 1958). This makes S. paradoxus the only known living mammal with modified dentition for venom delivery. Although this could be used to infer similar adaptation in extinct mammals, caution should be taken when finding extinct mammals with grooved dentition, as the sole presence of a grooved canine or incisor should not be regarded as a definite indication of capabilities of injecting venom into victims (Folinsbee et al. 2007, Orr et al., 2007). If you’re interested in the cranial osteology Solenodon paradoxus there’s a recent publication, Wible (2008), which is very detailed and has very good illustrations.

The fossil record of Solenodon shows that there were at least two other species during the Pleistocene, S. marcanoi and S. arredondoi from Hispaniola and Cuba respectively (Patterson, 1962; Morgan & Ottenwalder, 1993). Older remains, consisting of part of an axial skeleton, were found embedded in amber from the Early to Middle Miocene La Toca Formation of the Dominican Republic; these were described as belonging to a small solenodontid insectivore by MacPhee & Grimaldi (1996).

Solenodon, was not the only insectivore living in the Caribbean region, there was also a closely related form that was found in Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, these were the Nesophontes (McDowell, 1958), which will be the subject of a future post.

 

REFERENCES

Folinsbee, K. E., J. Müller & R. R. Reisz. 2007. Canine grooves: morphology, function, and relevance to venom. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(2):547-551.

Kahl, M. P. 1966. Comparative ethology of the Coconiidae. Part 1. The marabou stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus (Lesson). Behaviour 27(1-2):76-106.

Louchart, A., P. Vignaud, A. Likius, M. Brunet & T. D. White. 2005. A large extinct marabou stork in African Pliocene hominid sites, and a review of the fossil species of Leptoptilos. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50(3):549-563.

MacPhee, R. D. E. & D. A. Grimaldi. 1996. Mammal bones in Dominican Amber. Nature 380:489-490.

McDowell, S. B., Jr. 1958. The Greater Antillean Insectivores. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 115:113-214.

Morgan, G. S. & J. A. Ottenwalder. 1993. A new extinct species of Solenodon (Mammalia: Insectivora: Solenodontidae) from the Late Quaternary of Cuba. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 62(2):151-164.

Noriega, J. I. & G. Cladera. 2008. First record of an extinct marabou stork in the Neogene of South America. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53(4):593-600.

Orr, C. M., L. K. Delezene, J. E. Scott, M. W. Tocheri & G. T. Schwartz. 2007. The comparative method and the inference of venom-delivery systems in fossil mammals. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(2):541-546.

Patterson, B. 1962. An extinct solenodontid insectivore from Hispaniola. Breviora 165:1-11.

Roca, A. L., G. K. Bar-Gal, E. Eizirik, K. M. Helgen, R. Maria, M. S. Springer, S. J. O’Brien & W. J. Murphy. 2004. Mesozoic origin for West Indian insectivores. Nature 429: 649-651.

Wible, J. R. 2008. On the cranial osteology of the Hispaniolan Solenodon, Solenodon paradoxus Brandt, 1833 (Mammalia, Lipotyphla, Solenodontidae). Annals of the Carnegie Museum 77(3):321-402.

Witton, M. P. & D. Naish. 2008. A reappraisal of azhdarchid pterosaur functional morphology and paleoecology. PLoS ONE 3(5):1-16.

Identify the mystery critters/Identifica los animales misteriosos

It’s been a while since I posted something, mostly because of a class that takes away most of my daytime productive hours. So, here’s a brief post on which you will have to figure out what are the critters in the pictures. I’ll be traveling during the weekend but will hopefully have some time to finish a longer post I have been working on, sporadically, for the last month or so. Feel free to post your identification.

Enjoy the pictures and, by the way, Happy Darwin Day!!!

 

Hace tiempo que no “posteo” nada, mayormente debido a una clase que tengo durante mis horas productivas del día. Asi que aquí tienen una entrada breve donde ustedes tratarán de identificar los animales en las fotos. Estaré viajando durante el fin de semana, pero espero sacar tiempo para terminar una entrada un poco más extensa en la cual he estado trabajando esporádicamente durante el último mes. Siéntanse libre de comentar sobre la identificación.

Disfruten las fotos y felíz día de Darwin!!!

Mystery critter 1/animal misterioso 1

Mystery critter 2/animal misterioso 2

A river runs through an Oligocene sea

The subject of this post is about my second and final day of fieldwork in Puerto Rico. Yes, I only managed to get two days of fieldwork because these were actually some very short vacations and on top of that it was very rainy. Anyways, I already wrote about my first day of fieldwork during which I searched for tetrapods in the Late Oligocene Lares Limestone. Now on my second day I went out to one of my favorite localities, herein referred to as Río G. This locality consists of exposures of the Early Oligocene age San Sebastián Formation along the banks of a river (See the picture below with me as scale and outcrops on each side of the river). The exposures along this river are considered as typical of the basal part of this formation (Monroe, 1980). The lithology of this formation is varied, with some layers representing ancient soils, river channels, deltaic deposits as well as marine units. Of course this is all in a sequence that makes sense with the tectonic history and paleogeography of the region, an interesting subject, which I will not touch at this moment, but might be discussed sometime in the future.

Now, some interesting tetrapods have been recovered from this formation, such as the sirenian Caribosiren turneri, described by Reinhart in 1959. Also from this formation are known pelomedusid turtles, which were previously discussed here. From the Río G locality, one of the more recent discoveries is the skull of the gryposuchine gavialid Aktiogavialis puertoricensis (Velez-Juarbe, et al. 2007). Other tetrapods found here, include sirenians, part of a croc axial skeleton and the oldest-but-crappiest rodent fossil from the Caribbean region. Some of these, like the sirenians are part of my thesis project, whereas the others are still awaiting description or for better material to turn up.

Unfortunately, same as with the prospecting in the Lares Limestone, no new or even useful vertebrate fossils were found in Río G. The most interesting fossil I found was a plant fossil that might be a seed or some sort of fruit (see picture below of the seed/fruit together with a schematic drawing – the fossil measures about 27 mm across). If it actually turns out to be a seed/fruit it would not be the first time that plant “megafossils” are found in the San Sebastián Formation; about 88 taxa of plant macrofossils from this formation were described by Sir Arthur Hollick in the 1920’s (Graham, 1996). I have yet to see Hollick’s (1926, 1928) papers; therefore I still don’t know if my fossil is similar to any of the material he described.

Well, at least since Río G is along a body of water, it turned out a nice place to do some bird watching. I have on previous occasions observed some of the birds along this river, with the difference that now I had a camera with a good zoom allowing me to take some nice pictures. The composite picture below include, clockwise beginning with the upper left: male Molothrus bonariensis (shiny cowbird); Butorides striatus (green-backed heron); Egretta caerulea (little blue heron); Actitis macularia (spotted sandpiper, this one has the winter plumage hence the lack of spots).

An interesting fact about the shiny cowbird is that it is an invasive species from South America, first reported from the Caribbean region during the latter half of the 1800’s (Post & Wiley, 1977a). It is also a brood parasite; in Puerto Rico it parasitizes about 16 different species of birds with a preference for the yellow-shouldered blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus) (Post & Wiley, 1977b; Pérez-Rivera, 1986). These are actually bad news as the yellow-shouldered blackbird is an endemic to the Puerto Rico bank.

On the earlier half of the day, while stalking a green-backed heron (Butorides striatus), I was unwillingly reminded to always keep an eye of where I put my feet. The reason was that while trying to stealthily sneak up to see where the bird was standing, I almost ended up stepping on a couple of fairly large green iguanas (Iguana iguana) (see composite picture below)!

This was actually the first time I have seen green iguanas in the wild in this part of the island. Iguanas are an introduced pest in Puerto Rico therefore their occurrence in this locality took me totally by surprise, although I am aware that they are getting more common around the island, specially in the east and north where it is more humid (I believe they are still not present in the drier southern coast or that they are much less common there). Green iguanas are doing really well in Puerto Rico; the reason might be that once they reach an adult size, nothing, except maybe humans, will eat them. Perhaps another reason for their success is that until several thousand years ago there were Anegada rock iguanas (Cyclura pinguis) in Puerto Rico (Pregill, 1981); are then green iguanas just filling in an empty niche left over by the extinction of the Anegada rock iguana from Puerto Rico? This is unlikely; rock iguanas (Cyclura spp.) are adapted to xeric environments, which, unlike today, were present in northern PR during the Pleistocene (Pregill & Olson 1981). This means that the habitat that was occupied by C. pinguis in northern Puerto Rico, no longer exist there (rock iguanas are not the only xeric-adapted tetrapod to go extinct in northern PR [op. cit.]). All I know is that from now on I will have to keep an eye out for green iguanas while doing fieldwork, at least in northern Puerto Rico.

References

Graham, A. 1996. Paleobotany of Puerto Rico-from Arthur Hollick’s (1928) scientific survey paper to the present. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 776: 103-114.

Hollick, A. 1926. Fossil walnuts and lignite from Porto Rico. Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 27:223-227.

Hollick, A. 1928. Paleobotany of Porto Rico. Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 7(3):177-393.

Monroe, W. H. 1980. Geology of the middle Tertiary formations of Puerto Rico. US Geological Survey Professional Paper 953:1-93.

Pérez-Rivera, R. A. 1986. Parasitism by the shiny cowbird in the interior parts of Puerto Rico. Journal of Field Ornithology 57(2):99-104.

Post, W. & J. Wiley. 1977a. The shiny cowbird in the West Indies. Condor 79:119-121.

Post, W. & J. Wiley. 1977b. Reproductive interactions of the shiny cowbird and the yellow-shouldered blackbird. Condor 79:176-184.

Pregill, G. K. 1981. Late Pleistocene herpetofaunas from Puerto Rico. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Miscellaneous Publications 71:1-72.

Pregill, G. K. & S. L. Olson. 1981. Zoogeography of the West Indian vertebrates in relation to Pleistocene climatic cycles. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 12:75-98.

Reinhart, R. H. 1959. A review of the Sirenia and Desmostylia. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 36(1):1-146.

Velez-Juarbe, J., C. A. Brochu & H. Santos. 2007. A gharial from the Oligocene of Puerto Rico: transoceanic dispersal in the history of a nonmarine reptile. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:1245-1254.

Publicaciones de fósiles de Puerto Rico / Publications on fossils from Puerto Rico

Para esta nota he recopilado un listado de publicaciones que tratan sobre fósiles de Puerto Rico. Por supuesto que el listado está viciado a favor de publicaciones sobre vertebrados fósiles los cuales son mis favoritos o invertebrados con los cuales he trabajado en el pasado. Si conoces referencias adicionales me puedes avisar (a través de correo electrónico o comentarios abajo) para asi añadirlos a la lista. Algunas de las referencias incluso están enlazados su pdf gratis.

For this post I have compiled a list of publications that deals with fossils from Puerto Rico. Of course it is somewhat biased toward vertebrates, which are my favorites or invertebrates on which I have worked on previous occasions. If you know additional references that are not here just let me know (either through emails or comments below) and they will be added. Some of these are linked to their free pdf.

Updated: 25/May/2025

Allen, J. A. 1916. An extinct octodont from the island of Porto Rico, West Indies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 27:17-22.

Anthony, H. E. 1916a. Preliminary diagnosis of an apparently new family of insectivores. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 35(41):725-728.

Anthony, H. E. 1916b. Preliminary report of fossil mammals from Porto Rico, with descriptions of a new genus of ground sloth and two new genera of hystricomorph rodents. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 27:193-203.

Anthony, H. E. 1917a. New fossil rodents from Porto Rico, with additional notes on Elasmodontomys obliquus Anthony and Heteropsomys insulans Anthony. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 37(4):183-190.

Anthony, H. E. 1917b. Two new fossil bats from Porto Rico. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 37(19):565-568.

Anthony, H. E. 1918. The indigenous land mammals of Porto Rico, living and extinct. American Museum of Natural History, Memoirs 1(2):329-435.

Anthony, H. E. 1925. Mammals of Porto Rico, living and extinct—Chiroptera and Insectivora. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands IX:1–96.

Anthony, H. E. 1926. Mammals of Porto Rico, living and extinct—Rodentia and Edentata. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands IX:97–241.

Auffenberg, W. 1967. Notes on West Indian tortoises. Herpetologica 23(1):34-44.

Bandini, A. N., P. O. Baumgartner, K. Flores, P. Dumitrica, C. Hochard, G. M. Stampfli, and S.-J. Jackett. 2011. Aalenian to Cenomanian Radiolaria of the Bermeja Complex (Puerto Rico) and Pacific origin of radiolarites on the Caribbean Plate. Swiss Journal of Geociences 104:367-408.

Banerjee, A., K. Yemane, and A. Johnson. 2000. Foraminiferal biostratigraphy of late Oligocene-Miocene reefal carbonates in southwestern Puerto Rico. Micropaleontology 46(4):327-342.

Barbour, T. 1919. A new rock iguana from Puerto Rico. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 32:145-148.

Bermúdez, P. J., and G. A. Seiglie. 1967. A new genus and species of foraminifer from the early Miocene of Puerto Rico. Tulane Studies in Geology 5:177–179.

Bermúdez, P. J., and G. A. Seiglie. 1970. Age, paleoecology, correlation and foraminifers of the uppermost Tertiary formation of northern Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 10:17-33.

Blackburn, D. C., R. M. Keeffe, M. C. Vallejo-Pareja, and J. Velez-Juarbe. 2020. The earliest record of Caribbean frogs: a fossil coquí from Puerto Rico. Biology Letters 16:20190947.

Bonilla-Rodríguez, A. J., L. A. González, J. D. Walker, and H. Santos. 2014. Strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) stratigraphy from the Coalcomana-Caprinuloidea rudist assemblage in the Greater Antilles (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Jamaica). Cretaceous Research 50:97-109.

Brochu, C. A., A. M. Nieves-Rivera, J. Velez-Juarbe, J. D. Daza-Vaca and H. Santos. 2007. Tertiary crocodylians from Puerto Rico: evidence for late Tertiary endemic crocodylians in the West Indies? Geobios 40:51-59.

Choate, J. R. and E. C. Birney. 1968. Sub-recent Insectivora and Chiroptera from Puerto Rico, with the description of a new bat of the genus Stenoderma. Journal of Mammalogy 49(3):400-412.

Cobban, W. A., and G. R. Scott. 1988. Occurrence of the early Cretaceous Ammonite Venezoliceras in Puerto Rico. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1837:D1–D2.

Coryell, H. N., and V. Ohlsen. 1929. Fossil corals of Porto Rico, with descriptions also of a few recent species. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 3(3):169-236.

Cutress, B. M. 1980. Cretaceous and Tertiary Cidaroida (Echinodermata, Echinoidea) of the Caribbean area. Bulletin of American Paleontology 77:1-221.

Da Cunha, L., L. W. Viñola-López, R. D. E. MacPhee, L. Kerber, J. Vélez-Juarbe, P.-O. Antoine, M. Boivin, L. Hautier, R. Lebrun, L. Marivaux, and P.-H. Fabre. 2023. The inner ear of caviomorph rodents: phylogenetic implications and application to extinct West Indian taxa. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 30:1155–1176.

Domning, D. P. and O. A. Aguilera. 2008. Fossil Sirenia of the West Atlantic and Caribbean region. VIII. Nanosiren garciae, gen. et sp. nov. and Nanosiren sanchezi, sp. nov. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(2):479-500.

Donovan, S. K., S. N. Nielsen, J. Velez-Juarbe, R. W. Portell. 2019. The isocrinine crinoid Isselicrinus Rovereto from the Paleogene of the Americas. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 138:317-324.

Edinger, E. N., and M. J. Risk. 1994. Oligocene-Miocene extinction and geographic restriction of Caribbean corals: roles of turbidity, temperature, and nutrients. PALAIOS 9(6):576-598.

Flemming, C. and R. D. E. MacPhee. 1999. Redetermination of holotype of Isolobodon portoricensis (Rodentia, Capromyidae), with notes on recent mammalian extinctions in Puerto Rico. American Museum Novitates 3278:1-11.

Frank, E. F. and R. Benson. 1998. Vertebrate paleontology of Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 60:103-106.

Frost, S. H., J. L. Harbour, D. K. Beach, M. J. Realini, and P. M. Harris. 1983. Oligocene reef track development, southwestern Puerto Rico. Sedimenta 9:1-144.

Gaffney, E. S., and R. C. Wood. 2002. Bairdemys, a new side-necked turtle (Pelomedusoides: Podocnemididae) from the Miocene of the Caribbean. American Museum Novitates 3359:1-28.

Galloway, J. J., and C. E. Hemingway. 1941. The Tertiary Foraminifera of Porto Rico. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 3(4):275-491.

Gordon, W. A. 1960. The age of the middle Tertiary rocks of northwestern Puerto Rico. Second Caribbean Geological Conference, Transactions. 87–90.

Gordon, W. A. 1961. Distribution of Foraminifera in the middle Tertiary San Sebastián-Isabela section, Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Sciences 1(2):48–58.

Gordon, W. A. 1961. Miocene Foraminifera from the Lajas Valley, Southwest Puerto Rico. Journal of Paleontology 35(3):610-619.

Gordon, W. A. 1961. Planktonic foraminifera and the correlation of the middle Tertiary rocks of Puerto Rico. Micropaleontology 7(4):451-460.

Gordon, W. A. 1963. Middle Tertiary echinoids of Puerto Rico. Journal of Paleontology 37(3):628-642.

Gordon, W. A. 1966. Two crab species from the middle Tertiary of Puerto Rico. Transactions of the Third Caribbean Geological Conference, Kingston, Jamaica, 2nd-11th April, 1962:184-186.

Graham, A. 1996. Paleobotany of Puerto Rico-from Arthur Hollick’s (1928) scientific survey paper to the present. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 776: 103-114.

Graham, A. and D. M. Jarzen. 1969. Studies in neotropical botany. I. The Oligocene communities of Puerto Rico. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 56:308-357.

Herrera, F., S. R. Manchester, J. Velez-Juarbe, and C. Jaramillo. 2014. Phytogeographic history of the Humiriaceae (Part 2). International Journal of Plant Sciences 175:828-840.

Hollick, A. 1924. A review of the fossil flora of the West Indies, with description of new species. Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden 12:259–323.

Hollick, A. 1926. Fossil walnuts and lignite from Porto Rico. Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 27:223-227.

Hollick, A. 1928. Paleobotany of Porto Rico. Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 7(3):177-393.

Howell, B. F. 1966. New Upper Cretaceous sponge from Puerto Rico. Journal of Paleontology 40(1):207-209.

Hubbard, B. 1920. Tertiary Mollusca from the Lares district, Porto Rico. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 3(2):79-164.

Hubbard, B. 1923. The geology of the Lares District, Porto Rico. New York Academy of Science Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 2, 115 p.

Iturralde-Vinent, M. A. 2001. Geology of the amber-bearing deposits of the Greater Antilles. Caribbean Journal of Science 37(3-4):141-167.

Iturralde-Vinent, M. A. and E. Harstein. 1998. Miocene amber and lignitic deposits in Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 34:308-312.

Jackson, R. T. 1922. Fossil echini of the West Indies. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 306:1-103.

Kauffman, E., and N. F. Sohl. 1974. Structure and evolution of Antillean Cretaceous rudist frameworks. Verhandlungen der naturforschenden Gessellchaft in Basel 84:399–467.

Krijnen, J. P. 1978. Pseudorbitoids from the Parguera Limestone, Puerto Rico, and from the Back Rio Grande Limestone, Jamaica, with remarks on the pseudorbitoidal evolutionary pattern. Geologie en Mijnbouw 57:233–242.

Luque, J., C. E. Schweitzer, W. Santana, R. W. Portell, F. J. Vega, A. A. Klompmaker. 2017. Checklist of fossil decapod crustaceans from Tropical America. Part I: Anomura and Brachyura. Nauplius 25:e2017025.

MacPhee, R.D.E. 2011. Basicranial morphology and relationships of Antillean Heptaxodontidae (Rodentia, Ctenohystrica, Caviomorpha). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 363:1-70.

MacPhee, R.D.E. and M.A. Iturralde-Vinent. 1995. Origin of the Greater Antillean land mammal fauna, 1: new Tertiary fossils from Cuba and Puerto Rico. American Museum Novitates 3141:1-31.

MacPhee, R. D. E. and A. R. Wyss. 1990. Oligo-Miocene vertebrates from Puerto Rico, with a catalog of localities. American Museum Novitates 2965:1-12.

Marivaux, L., J. Velez-Juarbe, and P.-O. Antoine. 2020. 3D models related to the publication: Early Oligocene chinchilloid caviomorphs from Puerto Rico and the initial rodent colonization of the West Indies: 3D models of Oligocene Puerto Rican chinchilloids. MorphoMuseum, Association Palaeovertebrata 6(4):e127. DOI: 10.18563/journal.m3.127

Marivaux, L., J. Velez-Juarbe, and P.O. Antoine. 2021. 3D models related to the publication: An unpredicted ancient colonization of the West Indies by North American rodents: dental evidence of a geomorph from the early Oligocene of Puerto Rico. MorphoMuseum, Association Palaeovertebrata 7:e128. DOI: 10.18563/journal.m3.128

Marivaux, L., L. W. Viñola-López, M. Boivin, L. Da Cunha, P.-H. Fabre, R. Joannes-Boyau, G. Maincent, P. Münch, N. S. Stutz, J. Vélez-Juarbe, and P.-O. Antoine. 2022. Incisor enamel microstructure of West Indian caviomorph hystricognathous rodents (Octodontoidea and Chinchilloidea). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10914-022-09631-7

Marivaux, L., J. Velez-Juarbe, G. Merzeraud, F. Pujos, L. W. Viñola López, M. Boivin, H. Santos-Mercado, E. J. Cruz, A. Grajales, J. Padilla, K. I. Vélez-Rosado, M. Philippon, J.-L. Léticée, P. Münch, and P.-O. Antoine. 2020. Early Oligocene chinchilloid caviomorphs from Puerto Rico and the initial colonization of the West Indies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287:20192806.

Marivaux, L., J. Velez-Juarbe, L. W. Viñola López, P.-H. Fabre, F. Pujos, H. Santos-Mercado, E. J. Cruz, A. Grajales Pérez, J. Padilla, K. I. Vélez-Rosado, J.-J. Cornée, M. Philippon, P. Münch, and P.-O. Antoine. 2021. An unpredicted ancient colonization of the West Indies by North American rodents: dental evidence of a geomorph from the early Oligocene of Puerto Rico. Papers in Palaeontology 1–19. DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1388

Matthew, W. D. 1916. New sirenian from the Tertiary of Porto Rico. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 27:23-29.

Matthew, W. D. 1918. Affinities and origin of the Antillean mammals. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 29:657-666.

Matthew, W. D. 1919. Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates in the West Indies and their bearing on the origin of the Antillean Fauna. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 58:161-181.

Mattson, P. H., and E. A. Pessagno, Jr. 1979. Jurassic and Early Cretaceous radiolarians in Puerto Rican ophiolite—Tectonic implications. Geology 7:440–444.

Maury, C. J. 1920. Tertiary Mollusca from Porto Rico and their zonal relations. New York Academy of Sciences, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 3(1):1-77.

McDowell, S. B. 1958. The Greater Antillean insectivores. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 115:113-214.

McFarlane, D. A. 1999. A note on dimorphism in Nesophontes edithae (Mammalia: Insectivora), an extinct island-shrew from Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 35:142-143.

McFarlane, D. A. 1999. Late Quaternary fossil mammals and last occurrence dates from caves at Barahona, Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 35(3-4):238-248.

Mitchell, S. F. 2013. Revision of the Antillocaprinidae Mac Gillavry (Hippuritida, Bivalvia) and their position within the Caprinoidea d'Orbigny. Geobios 46:423–446.

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