Quaternary Research 52, 138 –140 (1999)

Article ID qres.1999.2046, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

SHORT PAPER
First Quaternary Fossil Record of Caecilians
from a Mexican Archaeological Site
Thomas A. Wake 1
Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1510

Marvalee H. Wake 2
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3140

and

Richard G. Lesure 3
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1361

Received November 2, 1998

structed mounds built on slightly elevated land (Lesure, 1997).

A single vertebra from an Early Formative period archaeological Mound 1 is one such artificial feature. Sometime between 1350
site in coastal Chiapas, México, is identified as belonging to the and 1200 B.C., during the Cherla ceramic phase, a dense refuse
amphibian Dermophis mexicanus (Duméril and Bibron) 1841 deposit containing predominantly Cherla-phase artifacts was
(Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). The vertebra was recovered quarried from somewhere in the surrounding area and heaped
from deposits dated to approximately 1200 –1350 B.C. The specimen
up to form a platform more than 1 m high and ca. 20 m in
represents the first Quaternary fossil record for gymnophiones. Its
presence suggests the possible role of the species as a bioturbator. Its
diameter.
recovery is further evidence of the utility of fine-grained archaeolog- Sediments excavated from Mound 1 were passed through 4
ical recovery techniques. © 1999 University of Washington. mm mesh screens in the field. The specimen in question would
not have been recovered without screens of this mesh size. The
caecilian vertebra was recovered from the screening of soils
A single caecilian vertebra is identified among bones recov-
from Unit F10, Level 9 –10, one of the lower levels of this
ered from Mound 1 at the site of Paso de la Amada, Chiapas,
platform, ranging from 70 to 90 cm below the modern ground
México. The site lies on the coastal plain 7 km east of the
surface. The fact that only one vertebra was found suggests that
Pacific Ocean and the modern estuary at the mouth of the Rio
the caecilian, like the overwhelming proportion of the abun-
Coatán and 5 km south of the swamps of Pampa La Cantileña
dant bone and other artifacts of that level, was part of the
(Fig. 1). Local wetlands and forests were more extensive in
original Cherla midden deposit quarried to form the low
prehistoric and even recent historic times than they are today
earthen platform. Consequently, the vertebra likely does not
after several decades of drainage for large-scale agriculture
derive from an animal that burrowed into the deposit since
(Blake, 1991; Clark and Blake, 1994; Coe and Flannery, 1967).
Cherla times, because more complete representation of the
The site, 15–20 m above sea level, was occupied between ca.
more than 100 vertebrae of the animal likely would be present.
1850 and 950 B.C. and is characterized by a series of low
The vertebra thus dates prior to 1200 B.C. and is most likely
natural undulations interspersed with old stream channels,
from the period 1350 to 1200 B.C., based on comparison of
some of which still flood in the rainy season (Blake et al.,
artifacts to the radiocarbon-dated sequence established by
1995; Clark, 1991). Evidence of habitation appears on natu-
Blake et al. (1995).
rally occurring higher ground in an area of approximately 50
ha. Some of the higher areas of the site are artificially con- The vertebra is amphicoelous and was originally included in
the fish remains. It is clearly that of a caecilian, distinguished
1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: twake@ucla.edu.
from fish by its flattened, elongate neural arch, well-developed
2
E-mail: mhwake@socrates.berkeley.edu. parapophyses bearing discrete articular facets, and a robust
3
E-mail: lesure@anthro.ucla.edu. ventral keel on the centrum. Diagenesis is well under way; the

0033-5894/99 $30.00 138

Copyright © 1999 by the University of Washington.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
 FIRST QUATERNARY FOSSIL RECORD OF CAECILIANS
FIG. 1. Map of southwestern Mexico showing Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, and neighboring Early Formative Period sites.
porous bone is nearly fully mineralized. The archaeological
specimen was measured and compared to vertebrae of several
species of Central and South American and African caecilians.
It closely resembles those of Dermophis mexicanus, the cae-
ciliid that currently inhabits southwestern Chiapas. The size
and shape of the fossil vertebrae are typical of midbody ver-
tebrae of D. mexicanus (based on 12 dried skeletons and x-rays
of approximately 100 specimens; Wake, 1980a). The archae-
ological specimen is larger than the prepared vertebrae from a
D. mexicanus, with a body length of 435 mm, but the species
does reach a length of at least 505 mm.
The archaeological vertebra and a representative modern
comparative specimen are illustrated in Figure 2. The archae-
ological specimen has one unusual feature, a small keel in the
center of the posterior end of the neural arch. The comparison
shows that (1) the archaeological specimen is from a D. mexi-
canus; (2) the specimen is from a mature adult, larger and
presumably older than the comparative specimen; and (3) the
vertebrae is from the midanterior to midtrunk region, based on
its size and shape.
Dermophis mexicanus, like all extant caecilians, is an elon-
gate limbless amphibian. The animals are fossorial and prefer
loose, moist, organic soils, but can be found in a variety of soil
types (Wake, 1980b, 1983). They construct extensive burrow
systems as wide as their bodies by digging head-first with a
largely up-and-down (vertical plane) motion (Ducey et al.,
1993; Summers and O’Reilly, 1997; Wake, 1993). The bur-
rows are occupied and maintained for varying periods of time;
139
when burrow systems are compacted, new holes are quickly
excavated (M. Wake, personal observation). As active burrow-
ers, D. mexicanus and other caecilian species represent yet
another organism that can contribute to bioturbation, or the
mixing of archaeological deposits (Bocek 1986; Erlandson,
1984; Stein, 1983).
No caecilian skeletal remains have been reported from any
Quaternary context. In addition to the remarkably complete
fossils from the Kayenta Formation (Early Jurassic) of North
America (Jenkins and Walsh, 1993), fossil caecilian vertebrae
are reported from the Cretaceous of Sudan (Werner, 1994; four
isolated trunk vertebrae), the Paleocene of Bolivia (Evans et
al., 1996) and Brazil (Estes and Wake, 1972; both single
vertebrae), and the Miocene of Colombia (Hecht and LaDuke,
1997; three isolated vertebrae, presumably anterior—the au-
thors note that the fossils are three to four times the size of the
vertebrae of living taxa to which they were compared). All of
these vertebrae are similar to those of living caecilians in
having the ventral keel typical of limbless elongate animals.
The vertebra from Paso de la Amada represents D. mexica-
nus, the discovery and identification of which illustrate the
utility of fine-grained archaeological recovery techniques and
detailed analysis of vertebrate faunal remains, a practice not
yet standard for Mesoamerican archaeological sites. The bur-
rowing habit of D. mexicanus also adds this species, and other
caecilians, to the list of likely contributors to the bioturbation
of archaeological sites.
140 WAKE, WAKE, AND LESURE
FIG. 2. Photographs of the 25th vertebra of a Dermophis mexicanus from
Finca Santa Julia, San Marcos, Guatemala (approximately 50 km SE of Paso
de la Amada; a, dorsal view; c, ventral view; e, lateral view), and of the
archaeological specimen from Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, México (b, dorsal
view; d, ventral view; f, lateral view). The articulation facets are distinct and
similar in both vertebrae, as are the ventral keel and other such features.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank David B. Wake, David W. Steadman, Stephen C. Porter, and an
anonymous reviewer for comments on the manuscript. The work was sup-
ported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation to T. A. Wake
(SBR-9730918) and M. H. Wake (IBN-9527681), the Wenner-Gren Founda-
tion for Anthropological Research to R. G. Lesure, and Arthur and Fran
Sherwood.
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