Right side of the Candelaria Creek (Neogene of Argentina)

Also known as Puchuzum

Where: San Juan, Argentina (31.1° S, 69.5° W: paleocoordinates 31.4° S, 67.4° W)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Las Floras Formation, Huayquerian (8.0 - 5.0 Ma)

• These localities are Puchuzum (Calingasta Valley), whose faunal assemblage is assigned to the Huayquerian SALMA (late Tortonian–Messinian; see Deschamps et al. 2013, for further details in bio- and chronostratigraphic equivalences),

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: wet floodplain; gray, sandy siltstone

• The general palaeoenvironment of the mid-section of

•Puchuzum is interpreted as a fluvial system with great devel-opment of flood plains and rivers, more or less channelled and strongly sinuous. The lacustrine interbeddings correspond to increasing and decreasing events of the lacustrine basin, in-fluenced by tectonic and hydrologic activity. A similar situa-tion has been interpreted for the Las Flores Formation in the Iglesia Basin/

• the bony remains recorded in this locality, which come from the middle of the exposed section, were assigned to the latest Miocene. This mid-section is characterized by brown-reddish to greyish psammo-pelitic deposits, reddish silty to silty-sandy beds, with some carbonaceous and con- glomeratic levels, and with cut and fill structures. Three man- tiform interbeddings of bentonitic clay, 3 to 10 m thick, are distinguished by their yellowish coloration. These bentonitic packages clearly correspond to sedimentary events that orig- inated in lakes, evidenced by the recorded fossils: bivalves, gastropods, insects, and fish

Size class: macrofossils

Collected in 2006

Primary reference: E. Cerdeño, M. E. Pérez, C. M. Deschamps and V. H. Contreras. 2019. A new capybara from the late Miocene of San Juan Province, Argentina, and its phylogenetic implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64(XX) [P. Mannion/M. Kouvari]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 198513: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Miranta Kouvari on 17.12.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Palymomorpha indet.
Gnathostomata
  -
Osteichthyes indet.
Aves
  -
Aves indet.
Aves indet. Linnaeus 1758 bird
Mammalia
 Notoungulata - Hegetotheriidae
Hemihegetotherium achataleptum
Hemihegetotherium achataleptum Rovereto 1914 notoungulate
studied in detail by Cerdeño and Contreras 2000
 Placentalia -
Rodentia indet.
Rodentia indet. Bowdich 1821 rodent
(Contreras and Cerdeño 2010; Bracco et al. 2011).
 Rodentia - Hydrochoeridae
Cardiatherium calingastaense n. sp.
Cardiatherium calingastaense n. sp. Cerdeño et al. 2019 caviomorph
Holotype : INGEO-PV 87
 Placentalia -
Litopterna indet., Xenarthra indet.
Litopterna indet. placental
(Contreras and Cerdeño 2010; Bracco et al. 2011).
Xenarthra indet. edentate
(Contreras and Cerdeño 2010; Bracco et al. 2011).
Deuteropoda
  -
Ostracoda indet.
Ostracoda indet. Latreille 1802 ostracod
Insecta
  -
Insecta indet.
Insecta indet. Linnaeus 1758 insect
unclassified
  -
Mollusca indet.
Mollusca indet. Linnaeus 1758