Birds from the Late Pleistocene-Holocene of Tandilia Eastern edge archaeological sites (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

FERNÁNDEZ OSUNA, M. ALEJANDRA; NORIEGA, JORGE IGNACIO; MAZZANTI, DIANA L.

Diamante

Congreso; 9th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution (SAPE); 2016

CICYTTP-MLP-CICTERRA-MACN

Among the Late Quaternary fossil record of Argentina, several sites of eastern edge of Tandilia hills stand out for its vertebrate richness and abundance. The most important is a group of rocky repairs located in La Vigilancia hill, with human occupations. Particularly significant is the record of Cueva Tixi site, which evolves more than 10.000 years, including levels deposited during the latest Pleistocene, and the early-late Holocene. Most of the collection proceeds from owl pellets; more than 500 samples correspond to small birds and are still undetermined. The study of bony accumulations provided in the indigestible rest of raptor birds has been fully used in present ecosystems diversity studies in the whole world, taking to account that bird occurrence and abundance are related to habitat characters where they are situated. In the case of fossil pellets, this data is meaningful in a paleoenvironmental reconstruction. These records are a possibility to amplify the knowledge about late Quaternary paleodiversity. Besides, the Southeast region of Buenos Aires has provided the more important Cenozoic paleornithological record of Argentina, therefore it is appropriate for comparative faunal analysis by ages. The comparison between diversity and abundance of present taxa in fossil/subfossil records and living communities will allow detecting eventual changes in avifauna assemblages and then infer its possible causes. This analysis has to be done considering climatic-environmental changes during the period, human modifications in the landscape, and the specific ecological requirements of birds. Preliminary results of morphological comparisons evidenced the presence of Thinocoridae and Tinamidae among skull samples, as well as Icteridae and Thraupidae among the humerus samples of Passeriformes.