IANIGLA   20881
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE NIVOLOGIA, GLACIOLOGIA Y CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Early Paleogene of Mendoza: new data and biostratigraphic implications
Autor/es:
VERA, B.; TUNIK, M.; CERDEÑO, E
Lugar:
Mendoza
Reunión:
Congreso; 4th International Palaeontological Congress; 2014
Resumen:
Among the Cenozoic vertebrates of Mendoza Province (Argentina) listed by Pascual and de la Fuente, the authors referred to some fossils collected by the geologist Dr. E. Kozlowski in the area named Agua de Flores, Malargüe Department. These remains were considered belonging to the Family Oldfieldthomasiidae (Notoungulata) and are housed in the Museo de La Plata (MLP 96-VIII-15-1, two right mandibles: one with m1-m2 and other with two broken teeth; and MLP 96-VIII-15-2, a calcaneum, an astragalus, and vertebrae). In an unpublished report, Kozlowski described two separated geologic sections in the area, Agua de Flores I and II, and mentioned some isolated mammal bones from the base of the Laguna Blanca Group, a unit considered to be Late Oligocene. However, the specimen MLP 96-VII-15-1 was determined as aff. Peripantostylops (Henricosborniidae), a notoungulate known in Cañadón Vaca (Chubut Province), a locality considered to represent the Vacan South America Land Mammal Age (Lower-Middle Eocene). Based on this background, since 2008, we began to explore the outcrops surrounding the area between the Agua de Flores Ranch and Agua de Isaac Ranch, distant approximately 8 km from each other and located at the east of Cara Cura Range. Recently, near Agua de Isaac, we recovered other isolated specimens from tuffaceous sandstone 2 m thick, located 108 m above the angular disconformity of the Malargüe-Laguna Blanca Groups. This unit can be stratigraphically correlated with the preorogenic sequence of Silvestro and Atencio, previously set on the Oligocene based on basalts on the upper units. The new fossils (housed in the Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales, Mendoza) include a maxillary fragment (IANIGLA-PV 85) bearing two brachydont teeth (P3-P4?) with close roots and a large, irregular central fossette; a mandibular symphysis lacking teeth (IANIGLA-PV 83); and a fragment of bone (IANIGLA-PV 82). Despite their bad preservation, the teeth resemble the morphology of Eocene notoungulates from Patagonia as it happened with MLP 96-VIII-15-1. Besides, the astragalus MLP 96-VIII-15-2 shows also an oldfieldthomasiid appearance. The presence of these notoungulate remains with Eocene affinities would therefore change the span of the preorogenic stage of the basin in the Malargüe fold and trust belt. Besides, it constitutes a new record for the Paleogene of Mendoza Province and Argentina, and an interesting novelty for further geologic, paleontological and biostratigraphic studies.