Los vertebrados del Neógeno tardío de Catamarca y Tucumán: actualización de su registro y cronología

NASIF, NORMA; ARMELLA, MATIAS; ESTEBAN, GRACIELA; MADOZZO JAEN, MA CAROLINA

Ciencias de la Tierra y Recursos Naturales del NOA

Asociacion Geologica Argentina

Lugar: Tucuman; Año: 2018; p. 749 - 762

Abstract. Late Neogene vertebrates of Catamarca and Tucumán: record update and chronology. This contribution presents an update of the results obtained in recent years from systematic fieldworks developed in different locations with late Neogene outcrops of Catamarca and Tucumán provinces. The lower units of the Santa Maria Group, with few fossils, were prospected obtaining an important and diverse record. Systematic, anatomic and phylogenetic studies of well-represented groups (particularly rodents) were developed. Among the most remarkable findings are the oldest bird pellets for South America for which inferences about producing organisms were proposed. In the upper levels of the Andalhuala Formation, between 4.4 Ma and 3.66 Ma, an almost complete skull of an Amphisbaenidae was recovered, which represents one of the oldest findings for South America. A revised and updated record of different groups is presented, including marsupials (argirolagids), notoungulates (toxodontids, mesotheriids and hegetotheriids), rodents (eretizontids, dinomids, caviids, between others) and dasipodids, among the most important. Considerations on the chronology and paleoenvironment of the region are developed. Some problems that have persisted over the time in the use of the "South American Mammal Ages" in late Miocene-Pliocene outcrops in the Catamarca and Tucumán provinces are discussed and correlation problems arising from new radimetric data are considered.