MITES (ACARI, ORIbATIDA, NANHERMANNIDAE) FROM THE EOCENE OF PATAGONIA: FIRST SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE FOSSIL RECORD IN MARINE SEDIMENTS

FERNÁNDEZ, D.A.; MARTINEZ, P; PALAZZESI, L., BARREDA, V. Y PRIETO, A.R; BARREDA, V.D.

AMEGHINIANA

ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2021 vol. 58

0002-7014

In this note, we report the finding of a fossil remainsbelonging to an oribatid mite. It is a leg, morphologicallyassignable to the family Nanhermannidae. It is the firstrecord of a pre-Pleistocene fossil mite from the SouthernHemisphere in marine sediments. The specimen comesfrom the Río Turbio Formation (RTF), SW of Santa Cruzprovince, Patagonia, Argentina (Fig. 1). The RTF representssedimentation in a transitional environment during theMiddle Eocene, the period when a global climate eventcalled Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) is recorded(González Estebenet et al., 2015). This finding supports thepresence of these mites in the southernmost tip of SouthAmerica during the Eocene. It also provides a new record,important from the phylogenetic and paleoecological pointof view