Megafauna Extinction in Central and Northwestern of Argentina

JOSÉ LUIS PRADO, RICARDO BONINI

Lima

Congreso; IX Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología; 2016

Ministerio de Cultura de Perú; Universidad Nacional de Piura, Perú

The causes of Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions remain controversial, with major phases coinciding with both human arrival and major climate change. This event revealed slightly different extinction patterns between areas of South America. In this presentation we evaluate a database of paleontological sites for central and northwestern Argentina. We make comparative analysis with the available late Pleistocene fauna from Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay. We provide a review of the available data concerning feeding paleoecology, habitat preferences and physiology and their relationships with the communities change. The archaeological data for this region suggest a low archaeological physiological signal ca. 14,500 cal BP and increase to a moderate and continuous signal in ca. 12,800 to 7500 cal BP. The vegetation during the Late Pleistocene in the area was characterized by a C3 grassland steppe. At the beginning of the Holocene, an increase of C4 grasses reveals a change in the vegetation, which affected the structure of mammal communities in the region and coincides with the disappearance of the megafauna from the fossil record. These evidences are sufficiently robust to correlate last-appearance records of megafauna, first appearance records of humans, and the Younger Dryas to Holocene climate transition in the region.