INVESTIGADORES
ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE Carolina Ileana Alicia
artículos
Título:
Pingüinos (Aves, Spheniscidae) en Coquimbo (Mioceno Medio- Plioceno Tardío), Chile y su vinculación con las corrientes oceánicas
Autor/es:
ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE, C., CANTO, J. Y TAMBUSSI, C.
Revista:
Revista Española de Paleontología
Editorial:
Madrid
Referencias:
Año: 2006 vol. 21 p. 115 - 121
ISSN:
0213-6937
Resumen:
Two remains of penguins (Spheniscidae) coming from the Coquimbo Formation (Middle Miocene-Late Pliocene) cropping out in ?La Cantera? (close to Coquimbo city), in the IV Región, Chile are described. They are added to the previously few vertebrates remains known from the area and constitute the first fossil bird from the locality. The specimens correspond to forms exclusively distributed on the South American coasts and apparently more related to modern penguin faunas than those of the high latitudes. The habits and environmental requirements of living penguins (related to template-cold currents) allow us to infer that, at the moment of depositation of the Coquimbo Formation, the influence of the cold Humboldt ocean current would have existed already. Coincidently, a prolonged cool episode was noticed at about 15-12 My on the Pacific ocean, when Unit 2 (one of the 13 Units previously recognized) of the Coquimbo Formation would have been deposited.
