FOSSIL WOODS FROM THE MIDDLE MIOCENE (RÍO CORRENTOSO FORMATION) OF PATAGONIA (NORTHERN SANTA CRUZ PROVINCE, ARGENTINA)

PUJANA, ROBERTO; ARAMENDÍA, INÉS; CUITIÑO, JOSÉ

AMEGHINIANA

ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2020

0002-7014

Abstract. We collected nine samples from the middle Miocene of Patagonia, in outcrops of the Río Correntoso Formation (Río Zeballos Group) in north Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Fossil woods have variable preservation and many are poorly preserved. Six samples are silicified, and three are totally carbonized. Two taxonomic units were confidently described, Cupressinoxylon sp., a conifer with affinity with the Cupressaceae or Podocarpaceae and Nothofagoxylon scalariforme with affinity with Nothofagus subgenus Nothofagus of the Nothofagaceae. Other samples are indeterminate angiosperms and conifers. Growth rings of two samples indicate seasonality and galleries with frass and coprolites found in an indeterminate conifer are similar to those made by coleoptera and acari. The assemblage taxonomic composition is similar to other Miocene wood floras of Patagonia with conifers and Nothofagaceae.