New discoveries about lichen traces on fossil vertebrates from Patagonia and Antarctica

C. ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE, G. MÁRQUEZ, L. M. PÉREZ, A. L. CIONE AND V. ROSATO

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Comunicaciones de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina 2009; 2009

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Characteristic erosive branching traces on the surface of bones and teeth have been known by vertebrate paleontologists working in Patagonia since a long time. We propose here that lichens are the agent that generated them, corresponding to late diagenetic processes. We here describe material coming from the early Miocene Gaiman Formation (Patagonia, Argentina) and the Eocene La Meseta Formation (Antarctica). Two different trace patterns are recognizable what permit us to identify a new ichnogenus and two new ichnospecies, which differ from root marks classically described in archaeological and paleontological remains. Fortunately, we found in several specimens lichen reproductive structures what allowed us their identification. The first ichnospecies occurs in Patagonia. We interpret that it was occasioned by the lichens Sarcogyne orbicularis Körber and Buellia sp. de Notaris. The second ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen Caloplaca ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen Caloplaca ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen Caloplaca ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen Caloplaca ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen Caloplaca Sarcogyne orbicularis Körber and Buellia sp. de Notaris. The second ichnospecies comes from Antarctica. It would have been cast by the lichen CaloplacaCaloplaca sp. Th. Fries.