Where: La Pampa, Argentina (35.7° S, 64.7° W: paleocoordinates 35.8° S, 63.0° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Cerro Azul Formation, Messinian (7.2 - 5.3 Ma)

• Verzi and Montalvo 2008: based on the “stage of evolution" of octodontids they concluded that this is of Huayquerian age.

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•Prevosti and Pardinas 2009: critique the above study. The lack of isotopic or paleomagnetic data coupled with the isolation of this locality and the absence of a local stratigraphic succession inhibit its correlation with other palaeontological comparable sites and a robust inference about its chronology. The “stage of evolution” of a taxon is not a biostratigraphic tool, thus we cannot rule out the possibility that the Caleufú assemblage has an Early Pliocene (Montehermosan) age.

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•Sostillo et al 2018: The Cerro Azul Formation deposits (Linares et al., 1980) are discontinuous along the whole occupied area in the provinces of La Pampa and Buenos Aires (Fig. 2). They are composed of silts, sandy silts and very thin silty sands, reddish and brown colored, with a homogeneous and com- pact general aspect, and frequent carbonate nodules and evidences of pedogenic processes (Folguera and Zárate, 2009). Visconti et al. (2010) interpreted them as eolian deposits characterized by loessic materials, with a high per- centage of lithic fragments and volcaniclastic sediments. Detailed geological and stratigraphic descriptions of the Cerro Azul Formation are provided by Linares et al. (1980), Goin et al. (2000), Visconti et al. (2010), and Folguera and Zárate (2009).

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•Prevosti et al. (2023): By combining our new radioisotopic dates with biochronology (Supplementary Table S6), a further refinement of the sigmodontine temporal record is now possible. Our results indicate a median age of 5.773 Ma (range 6.214 –5.115 Ma) for the Caleufú assemblage.

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: loess; paleosol/pedogenic, concretionary, brown, gray, sandy siltstone

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Primary reference: D. H. Verzi and C. I. Montalvo. 2008. The oldest South American Cricetidae (Rodentia) and Mustelidae (Carnivora): Late Miocene faunal turnover in Central Argentina and the Great American Biotic Interchange. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 267(3-4):284-291 [C. Jaramillo/J. Carrillo]more details

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 141939: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Juan Carrillo on 03.04.2013, edited by Grace Varnham, Miranta Kouvari, Philip Mannion and Kateryn Pino

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)