The small mammals record of Rincón de los Helados and their possible paleoenvironmental implications

LÓPEZ, JOSÉ MANUEL; CHIAVAZZA, HORACIO; ROSI, MARÍA IRENE

San Rafael, Mendoza

Congreso; 12th International Conference of Archaeozoology; 2014

Several researches conducted in this region provided valuable information on distribution patterns of current small mammal assemblages (≤1 kg.). However, despite the increasing value of microvertebrates as proxy-data for studies of paleoenvironmental fluctuations, at present there are no records on this fauna for Northern Mendoza. In this work we study the taxonomic composition of small mammals in Rincón de los Helados archaeological site (Northwest of Mendoza, Argentina), in order to evaluate the paleoenvironmental context around the site.