La Estrella (Miocene of Argentina)

Where: Chubut, Argentina (44.6° S, 69.1° W: paleocoordinates 45.3° S, 63.2° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Colhue-Huapi Member (Sarmiento Formation), Colhuehuapian (21.0 - 17.5 Ma)

• It consists of an isolated outcrop of the Sarmiento Formation.

•The fossil-bearing bed is around 15 m below a flow basalt, herein correlated with the uppermost flow basalt recorded in the Scarritt Pocket section.

•Relative age younger than Deseadan and not older than Colhuehuepian.

•The authors correlate the La Estrella section with the lower Colhue-Huapi Member.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; unlithified, massive, fine-grained, gray, green, red, white, sandy tuff

• The section is 18 m thick and characterized by a monotonous succession of mostly massive, fine tuffs (Figure 2). The lowermost 6 m are pinkish gray in color, and contain floated medium size mammal remains. The upper part displays whitish and light greenish grey tuffs, and displays insect pupation chambers (Fictovichnus sp.) and small-sized mammal remains in place, including the material herein

•reported. This and other outcrops fill small depressions or directly lie above the basaltic plateau conforming the Meseta del Canquel, and are close to the classical vertebrate locality “Scarritt Pocket”, located at approximately 25 km to the east (Marshall, Cifelli, Drake, & Curtis, 1986) (Figure 1). The fossil-bearing bed is around 15 m below a flow basalt, herein correlated with the uppermost flow basalt recorded in the Scarritt Pocket section.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

• There is a right maxillary fragment preserving M1–3, moderately worn.

Collected in 2016; reposited in the MEF

Primary reference: N. M. Novo, M. F. Tejedor, M. E. Pérez and J. M. Krause. 2017. New primate locality from the early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 164:861-867 [P. Mannion/M. Kouvari]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 197191: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Miranta Kouvari on 25.10.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Mammalia
 Metatheria -
Sparassodonta indet.
Sparassodonta indet. Ameghino 1894 metatherian
 Marsupialia -
Paucituberculata indet.
Paucituberculata indet. Ameghino 1894 marsupial
 Notoungulata - Interatheriidae
Interatheriidae indet.
Interatheriidae indet. Ameghino 1887 notoungulate
 Notoungulata - Hegetotheriidae
Hegetotheriidae indet.
 Primates - Homunculidae
Mazzonicebus almendrae
Mazzonicebus almendrae Kay 2010 monkey
MPEF-PV 10970
 Rodentia - Neoepiblemidae
Perimys sp.
Perimys sp. Ameghino 1887 caviomorph
 Rodentia -
Eosteiromys sp., Banderomys leanzai
Eosteiromys sp. Ameghino 1902 caviomorph
Banderomys leanzai Kramarz 2005 caviomorph
MPEF-PV 10966a-e
 Cingulata - Glyptodontidae
Glyptodontidae indet.
Glyptodontidae indet. Burmeister 1879 glyptodon
 Cingulata - Dasypodidae
Dasypodinae indet.
Dasypodinae indet. Gray 1821 armadillo
Insecta
  -
Insecta indet.
Insecta indet. Linnaeus 1758 insect