My first contact with the state of Tamaulipas, as a mammalogist, was in 1957, when in company with Dr. Bernardo Villa R. I visited the Cueva del Abra in the southern part of the state. On several occasions since then I have been in the state, especially when employed by the Dirección General de Caza of the Mexican Government. In 1960-1962 I had the opportunity of studying the mammalian fauna of Tamaulipas at the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas. The approximately 2000 specimens there represent many critical localities, but are not sufficient to make this report as complete as could be desired. Consequently the following account should be considered as a contribution to the knowledge of the mammals of México and is offered in the hope that it will stimulate future studies of the Mexican fauna, especially that of the eastern region.
PHYSIOGRAPHY
Tamaulipas can be divided into three physiographic regions, which from east to west are Gulf Coastal Plain, Sierra Madre Oriental, and Central Plateau or Mexican Plateau ([Fig. 1]).
Gulf Coastal Plain
This physiographic region covers most of the state and extends northward into Texas and a short distance southward into Veracruz.
According to Tamayo (1949) and Vivo (1953), the Gulf Coastal Plain is formed by sedimentary rocks from Mesozoic to Pleistocene in age. The most common type of soil is Rendzin, especially in the coastal area. Elevations range from sea level to 300 meters. The area is in general a flat plain inclined to the sea but this plain is broken by several small sierras. The more important of these are the Sierra de Tamaulipas, which rises to more than 1000 meters, and the Sierra San Carlos, which has a maximum elevation of approximately 1670 meters. The Sierra de San José de las Rucias is smaller.
Sierra Madre Oriental
This physiographic region is represented in Tamaulipas by a small part of the long Sierra Madre Oriental that extends from the Big Bend area in Texas southward to the Trans-volcanic Belt of central México. The Sierra Madre Oriental is in the southwestern part of Tamaulipas. The Sierra was formed by folding of the Middle and Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic deposits that now are 400 to 2700 meters in elevation. In general, the soils are Chernozems.
This physiographic region is situated between the other two physiographic regions in Tamaulipas and represents a barrier to the distribution of some tropical mammals on the one hand and to those from the Mexican Plateau on the other.