CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Late Pleistocene outcrops exposed in Buenos Airesprovince, Argentina, represents one of the most informative source about thepaleoecology of South American megafauna. However, there are no records of anaccurate, dated carnivore-herbivore taphocenosis. Here, we present preliminaryresults of a recent excavation in the Salado river margins, in sediments attributedto the Luján Formation (Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene. The fossiliferousstrata consist of greenish brown sandy-clayed levels deposited in a small pondenvironment that was filled by aeolian sediments, exhibiting abundant organicmatter, gypsum and carbonatic concretions. Fieldwork yielded an association ofextinct large-sized mammal that include the horse Hippidion principale, the ?sabertoothcat? Smilodon populator (at least one adult and one juvenile associatespecimens), and the glyptodont Doedicurus clavicaudatus. Three 14C dating wereperformed in an organic matter (12100 ±100 BP), a femur of Smilodon populator(13400 ± 200 BP), and a cervical vertebra of Hippidion principale (12860 ± 120 BP),situating the site between 12000 and 13000 years span. Remarkably, recovered specimensexhibit conspicuous bone modifications (furrows, pits, punctures, striationsand crenulated margins) attributed to medium-large carnivore activity. Theassociation between herbivore bones with conspicuous modification produced by alarge carnivore, and the presence of juvenile and adult specimens of Smilodonlink this felid with the taphonomic mode that produced the excavatedassociation, being probably a den-like taphocenosis. Surely, more excavationefforts at the site will permit us to test this hypothesis.

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