Chorology of microfauna in the Deseado river Basin (Patagonia, Argentina): its meaning on the taphonomy and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of archaeological sites

SALEMME, MONICA; MIOTTI, LAURA; MOREIRA, GERMAN

Quaternary International

Elsevier

Lugar: New York; Año: 2007

Microvertebrates have been recurrently used in paleoenvironmental reconstruction of archaeological sites, assuming that they are better indicators than macrovertebrates to infer environmental changes along extended time scales.             The microfauna archaeofaunistic information presently available for Patagonian steppe sites does not show high sensitivity for a sequence ranging from Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. This has been corroborated both in open air sites and in caves, though proxy data (pollen, sediments, paleosoils, sea-level changes) indicate strong environmental changes since the beginning of the human occupation of this region.             The actualistic analysis of Strigiform (owl) pellets, recovered both in stratigraphy as in the proximities of archaeological sites, shows that in the Southern Patagonian steppe (lat. 47º to 48º S) microfauna has not changed at least in the last 12 kyr. In this presentation, the data of certain microenvironments in caves and rock shelters in wetlands (“mallines”) of La Primavera locality and rock shelters near a salt lake at Piedra Museo Locality will be summarized.