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Résumé: Deux découvertes récentes dans deux lagoas du Sud-Est du Piauí (Nordeste brésilien) nous permettent de décrire et de comparer deux hémimandibules de Megatheriidae de très petite taille. Nous attribuons l’une, de la Lagoa dos Porcos, à un individu très juvénile d’Eremotherium rusconii (Schaub, 1935), le grand Eremotherium bien connu en Amérique du Sud, et l’autre, de la Lagoa do Quari, à un individu adulte d’Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842). Ce faisant, nous confirmons l’idée, que nous avions émise dès 2000, que cette dernière espèce existe bien et n’a pas été définie, comme certains auteurs le pensent, à partir d’un individu juvénile du grand E. rusconii. C’est la première fois qu’une mandibule de E. laurillardi est décrite. La mandibule très juvénile de E. rusconii publiée ici à titre de comparaison est, elle aussi, un spécimen peu fréquent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Upper Pleistocene site Belobaka XVII (about 20,000years) has yielded some Hippopotami remains included in a very hard breccia. Among this material two lower premolars, a juvenile calcaneus, two juvenile metatarsals and a first abaxial phalange have been cleaned and can be studied. They belong to Hippopotamus laloumena, allowed us to know for the first time the P/2 and P/3 of that species and confirm its validity. Belobaka is then the third Malagasyan site where H. laloumena has been found, and the first which yielded Pleistocene hippopotami remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scelidodon piauiense nov. sp., a new Mylodontidae Scelidotherinae (Mammalia, Xenarthra) of the Quaternary of the Serra da Capivara National Park region (Piaui, Brazil). The skull, mandible and postcranial skeleton of a new species of Scelidodon, S. piauiense nov. sp., were discovered in 2002 in the Toca do Barrigudo, Serra da Capivara National Park Region, southeastern Piaui´, Brazil. About as large as S. chiliensis from the Upper Pleistocene of Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, S. piauiense presents different proportions. The new species was identified from the nearby site of Toca do Garrincho, where it is sympatrical with Catonyx cuvieri. Such a discovery much extends the area occupied by Scelidodon during the Pleistocene. To cite this article: C. Gue´rin, M. Faure, C. R. Palevol 3 (2004). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The colonization of Madagascar by man is an active subject of scientific debate. Until recently the oldest evidence of humans on the island dated to a few centuries BC or AD from sites located in the South-West of Madagascar. The discoveries at Anjohibe, about 1500years older, indicate an early colonization of the North-West of the island. This region is closer than two of the shortest routes from Africa or Asia. The discoveries are not archaeological artefacts but cut marks on bones of subfossil dwarf hippopotami. These observations indicate that the coexistence of humans with extinct subfossil faunas has been much longer than previously thought. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]