Sacaco, Arequipa (Pleistocene of Peru)

Where: Arequipa, Peru (15.5° S, 74.8° W: paleocoordinates 15.6° S, 74.5° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.0 Ma)

• Quaternary deposits of Sacaco overlying the Pisco Formation (Miocene±Pliocene) (Muizon

•1981; Marocco and Muizon 1988) and Tres Ventanas cave, of Peruvian Andes (Engel 1970).

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; unlithified lithology not reported

• Quaternary deposits of Sacaco overlying the Pisco Formation.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Primary reference: F. Pujos and R. Salas. 2004. A new species of Megatherium (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Megatheriidae) from the Pleistocene of Sacaco and Tres Ventanas, Peru. Palaeontology 47(3):579-604 [C. Jaramillo/J. Ceballos/A. Cardenas ]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 144922: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Juliana Ceballos on 21.05.2013, edited by Andrés Cárdenas, Miranta Kouvari and Juan Carrillo

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• A field campaign in the Sacaco-Lomas area in February-March 2000 recovered a new Pleistocene mammalian fauna at Aguada de Lomas, Sacaco 1, and Sacaco 2 (Pujos and Salas 2002). Sacaco 2 yielded various remains, including MUSM 15, considered the holotype of M. urbinai and associated with fragmentary bones of Equus (Amerhippus) cf. santa-elenae (Equidae: Equinae), Stego- mastodon sp. (Gomphotheridae: Anancinae), and a juvenile mandible of Calomys sp. (Muridae: Sigmodontinae).
Mammalia
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Calomys sp. Waterhouse 1837 vesper mouse
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus cf. santaeelenae Spillmann 1938 horse
 Megatherioidea - Megatheriidae
Megatherium urbinai Pujos and Salas 2004 edentate
MUSM 15: a partial skeleton including fragments of the skull, hyoid apparatus, and mandible (with two teeth), three sacral vertebrae, the 12 posterior caudal vertebrae, a hemal arch, several ribs, distal epiphysis of R and L humeri, proximal epiphysis of R radius, L radius, R and L ulnae, R and L scaphoids, L cuneiform (medial side damaged), L pisiform, L trapezoid (medial side damaged), L unciform, R magnum, R and L palmar sesamoids, L MCC, L McII±V and R IV-V, L P1-II (dorsal portion absent), L P3-II (dorsal half of the articulation absent), L P(1±2)- III, R and L P3-III, L P1-IV, R and L P2-IV, R and L P3-IV, R and L proximal P-V, R femur (most of medial surface missing), L patella, R tibia-®bula, distal half of L tibia-®bula, one ossi®ed meniscus of the knee joint, R and L cyamellae, R and L astragali, R calcaneum, R and L cuboids, L navicular, R ectocuneiform, L MEC, L MtIII, R MtIV, R and L P(1±2)-III, L P3-III, and one sesamoid (fabella?).
 Proboscidea - Gomphotheriidae
Gomphotheriidae indet.2 Hay 1922 gomphothere
MUSM s/n
Notiomastodon sp.1 Cabrera 1929 gomphothere