Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo: Huayquerian, Argentina

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Didelphimorphia
Goin and Pardiñas 1996
GHUNLPam 189, mandibular fragment
Mammalia - Notoungulata
Sostillo et al. 2021
GHUNLPam 2429, 5930
Tremacyllus impressus (Ameghino 1888)
Sostillo et al. 2018
GHUNLPam multiple specimens
Paedotherium minor Cabrera 1937
Sostillo et al. 2021
GHUNLPam multiple specimens
Mammalia - Notoungulata - Mesotheriidae
Sostillo et al. 2021
GHUNLPam 2430, 18551
Mammalia - Notoungulata - Toxodontidae
Pisanodon nazari Cabrera and Kraglievich 1931
Sostillo et al. 2021
MLP 57X–10–123
Sostillo et al. 2021
GHUNLPam 18732
Romano et al. 2023
Mammalia - Carnivora - Procyonidae
Hontecillas et al. 2023 4 specimens
GHUNLPam 14367, GHUNLPam 8775, MLP 87-XI-20-2, MLP 65-VII -29-86
Mammalia - Rodentia - Chinchillidae
Montalvo et al. 2023
GHUNLPam 83 right maxilla with P4-M1, GHUNLPam 126 right mandible with p4-m3, GHUNLPam 192 right mandible with p4-m4, GHUNLPam 6206 right mandible with p4-m1, GHUNLPam 18433 right mandible with m1-3
Montalvo et al. 2023
GHUNLPam 82 left maxilla with P4-M3, GHUNLPam 6115 left mandible with p4-m2, GHUNLPam 6200 right maxilla with M1-3, GHUNLPam 14491 palate with left P4-M3 and right P4-M1, MLP-PV- 65-VII-29-72 palate with right and left P4-M3.
Mammalia - Rodentia - Octodontidae
Piñero et al. 2021
GHUNLPam 6947, 8261, 18417, MMP 992-M
Mammalia - Cingulata - Glyptodontidae
Glyptodontidae indet. Burmeister 1879
Mammalia - Mylodontidae
Proscelidodon sp. Bordas 1935
Montalvo et al. 2020
GHUNLPam 5280, 18738, 14315, 6125, 2434, 4995, 14722, 18807 and 997
see common names

Geography
Country:Argentina State/province:La Pampa
Coordinates: 37.2° South, 63.6° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:36.9° South, 61.9° West (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period: Neogene
10 m.y. bin: Cenozoic 6
Key time interval: Huayquerian
Age range of interval: 8 - 5 m.y. ago
Age estimate: 7.045 to 6.324 Ma (other)
Stratigraphy
Formation:Cerro Azul
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: The Cerro Azul Formation outcrops are located in the north-western, central, and eastern part of La Pampa province and adjacent western Buenos Aires province, Argentina (Linares, Llambías & Latorre, 1980; Folguera & Zárate, 2009; Visconti et al., 2010). The unit is characterized by a monotonous succession of loess containing moderately developed paleosols (Fig. 4) that has been assigned to the late Miocene (Huayquerian Land Mammal age) essentially on the basis of its mammal remains (Montalvo & Casadío, 1988; Verzi, Montalvo & Vucetich, 1999; Verzi, Montalvo & Tiranti, 2003). In particular, the formation is considered as representing the interval between 10 and 5.7 Ma (Cione et al., 2000; Verzi, Montalvo & Deschamps, 2008)

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 Grandes de Hidalgo.
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:burrows muddy,sandy siltstone
Lithology description: The maximum exposed thickness in outcrop is 54 m, although the unit reaches about 180 m in the subsurface (Visconti et al., 2010). The formation is essentially composed of structureless, light brown (5YR 6/4), pale reddish brown (10R 5/4) or grayish orange pink (5YR 7/2), sandy siltstones and fine-grained sandstones, showing moderate selection and common carbonate cementation
Environment:fluvial indet.
Geology comments: Sostillo et al 2018: Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo presents fluvial deposits with intercalated paleosols (Mehl and Zárate, 2014)
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection excludes:ichnofossils
Reason for describing collection:taphonomic analysis
Collection method comments: Fossil remains from La Pampa province collected during this study are housed at the Paleontological Collection of the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Santa Rosa city, La Pampa, Argentina, under the acronym GHUNLPam
Field work was approved by the Dirección Provincial de Museos y Preservación Patrimonial, under the Project ‘‘Vertebrados del Mioceno tardío-Plioceno en el área de las lagunas encadenadas del oeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires. Aportes a la bioestratigrafía del Cenozoico tardío de la Región Pampeana’’, permit nr. 2015-3-P-156-2.
Taxonomic list comments:The body fossils are only included here.
Metadata
Also known as:SG
Database number:206031
Authorizer:P. Mannion, E. Vlachos, J. Carrillo Enterer:M. Kouvari, P. Mannion, F. Aspromonte, G. Varnham, K. Pino
Modifier:K. Pino
Created:2019-10-29 04:17:13 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:2019-10-29 04:17:13
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
70684. M. C. Cardonatto and R. N. Melchor. 2018. Large mammal burrows in late Miocene calcic paleosols from central Argentina: paleoenvironment, taphonomy and producers. PeerJ 6:e4787 [P. Mannion/M. Kouvari]

Secondary references:

73010 F. J. Goin and U. F. J. Pardiñas. 1996. Revisión de las especies del Género Hyperdidelphys Ameghino, 1904 (Mammalia, Marsupialia, Didelphidae). Su significación filogenética, estratigráfica y adaptativa en el Neógeno del Cono Sur Sudamericano. . Estudios Geológicos 52:327-359 [P. Mannion/G. Varnham/G. Varnham]
86907 D. Hontecillas, L. H. Soibelzon, C. I. Montalvo and R. A. Bonini. 2023. Cyonasua zettii sp. nov. (Procyonidae, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene of Central Argentina and a review of the fossil record of Cerro Azul Formation. Historical Biology [E. Vlachos/F. Aspromonte/P. Mannion]
73341 C. I. Montalvo, A. R. Miño-Boilini, R. Sostillo, E. Cerdeño, M. C. Cardonatto and R. A. Bonini. 2020. The Scelidotheriinae Proscelidodon gracillimus (Xenarthra: Mylodontidae) from the Cerro Azul Formation (late Miocene), Argentina: Ontogenetic variability and taxonomy. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 102754 [P. Mannion/P. Mannion]
85601 C. I. Montalvo, R. Sostillo, and L. L. Rasia. 2023. New light on the late Middle Miocene–Early Pliocene representatives of Lagostomus (Chinchillidae, Rodentia) from Cerro Azul Formation, Argentina. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 128(104481) [J. Carrillo/K. Pino]
85280 P. Piñero, D. H. Verzi, A. I. Olivares, C. I. Montalvo, R. L. Tomassini and A. Fernández Villoldo. 2021. Evolutionary pattern of Metacaremys gen. nov. (Rodentia, Octodontidae) and its biochronological implications for the late Miocene and early Pliocene of southern South America. Papers in Palaeontology 7(4):1859-1917 [J. Carrillo/K. Pino/P. Mannion]
85650 C. O. Romano, R. Bonini, S. Hemming, M. Cenizo, U. F. J. Pardiñas and F. J. Prevosti. 2023. Advances in the understanding of Neogene mammalian fauna in the Pampean region (central Argentina) through revising “biozone” hypotheses based on new dates and biochronological analyses. Ameghiniana 60(5):465-491 [J. Carrillo/K. Pino]
72326 R. Sostillo, E. Cerdeno, and C. I. Montalvo. 2018. Taxonomic implications of a large sample of Tremacyllus (Hegetotheriidae: Pachyrukhinae) from the late Miocene Cerro Azul formation of La Pampa, Argentina. Ameghiniana 55(4):407-422 [P. Mannion/M. Kouvari]
84590 R. Sostillo, C. I. Montalvo, E. Cerdeño, G. I. Schmidt, A. Folguera and M. C. Cardonatto. 2021. Updated knowledge on the Notoungulata (Mammalia) from the late Miocene Cerro Azul Formation, La Pampa Province, Argentina. Historical Biology An International Journal of Paleobiology 33(8):1247-1265 [J. Carrillo/K. Pino]