Where: La Pampa, Argentina (37.2° S, 63.6° W: paleocoordinates 37.4° S, 61.3° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Epecuén Formation, Huayquerian (8.0 - 5.0 Ma)

• Schmidt et al. 2018: Late Miocene deposits in La Pampa Province are very extensive and grouped into the Cerro Azul Formation (Linares et al., 1980; Folguera and Zarate, 2009), including the “Epecuen Formation” in west of Buenos Aires Province (sensu Pascual, 1961, Goin et al., 2000). Figure 2 illustrates the stratigraphic distribution of the locality giving a general age estimate of 6.6-7.2Ma.

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•Rasia et al 2020: “formación” Epecuén, que en la localidad de Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo se considera sinónimo de la Formación Cerro Azul (Fig. 1), Mioceno tardío (Piso/Edad Huayqueriense; ver Goin et al., 2000; ver Fig. 2)

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•Romano et al. 2023: Biochronological methods were useful in ordering and estimating the age of the different faunas of the Cerro Azul Formation, ranging from ca. 8 to ca. 5.7 Ma. Some appear to be transitional between Chasicoan and “Huayquerian” faunas (Cerro La Bota, Cerro Patagua, and Algarrobo del Águila), and other three (Barrancas Coloradas, El Guanaco, and Caleufú) cover the latest Miocene, even some of them could have reached the earliest Pliocene. The Cerro Azul Formation localities cover the range between ca. 8 to ca. 5.7 Ma (late Tortonian–Messinian; Late Miocene; Fig. 3; Supplementary Online Information 1, Tab. S8). 6.609 Ma (6.324 - 7.045 Ma) for Salinas Grande de Hidalgo.

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; lithified, brown siltstone

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: Museo de La Plata collection

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•Esteban, et al. 2000: Todos los ejemplares analizados están depositados en

•la Cátedra de Geología Histórica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad Nacional ele La Pampa, Argentina, cuyo acrónimo es GHUNLPam

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•Rasia et al 2020: El material fue colectado por R. Pascual, E. J. Ortega Hinojosa y E. P. Tonni en

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•Vezzosi 2012: The Pampean material (MMP-990) described in this study was collected by Alejandro Dondas. The fossil remains are stored in the collections of the Museo Municipal de Mar del Plata ‘Lorenzo Scaglia’ (MMP).

Primary reference: S. F. Vizcaíno and R. A. Fariña. 1999. On the flight capabilities and distribution of the giant Miocene bird Argentavis magnificens (Teratornithidae). Lethaia 32(4):271-278 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 87198: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 09.03.2009, edited by Juan Carrillo, Evangelos Vlachos, Grace Varnham, Miranta Kouvari and Kateryn Pino

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)