El Indio: Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene, Costa Rica

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Cingulata - Pampatheriidae
Pampatherium sp. Ameghino 1875
Mammalia - Megatheriidae
Eremotherium sp. Spillmann 1948
Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Equidae
"plesippine traits"
Mammalia - Camelidae
"camel"
Mammalia - Proboscidea - Gomphotheriidae
"gomphothere proboscideans"
Reptilia - Testudines
Testudines indet. Batsch 1788
"turtles"
Reptilia
Crocodylus sp. Laurenti 1768
see common names

Geography
Country:Costa Rica State/province:Puntarenas
Coordinates: 8.9° North, 83.1° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:9.2° North, 82.7° West (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Altitude:680 meters
Geographic resolution:outcrop
Time
Period: Neogene - Quaternary Epoch: Pliocene - Pleistocene
Stage: Piacenzian 10 m.y. bin: Cenozoic 6
Key time interval: Late Pliocene - Early Pleistocene
Age range of interval: 3.6 - 0.774 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Formation:Paso Real
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: age estimate based on "plesippine" characters of horse teeth
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:coarse poorly lithified sandstone
Secondary lithology: conglomerate
Lithology description: "a weakly cemented, coarse fluvial sandstone and conglomerate of peas-sized pebbles"
Environment:fluvial indet.
Geology comments: "fluvial"; outcrop is a "lag deposit" in a stream, but this does not refer to the paleoenvironment
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Articulated whole bodies:none
Associated major elements:none
Disassociated major elements:some
Disassociated minor elements:many
Feeding/predation traces:fractures,punctures
Collection methods and comments
Collection excludes:species names
Collection methods:surface (float),field collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collection method comments: "No excavation or systematic screen washing... All fossils are isolated finds eroding from the sediments"
Metadata
Database number:69920
Authorizer:J. Alroy Enterer:J. Alroy
Modifier:J. Alroy Research group:vertebrate
Created:2007-03-11 14:03:48 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:2007-03-11 14:03:48
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
23469. J. I. Mead, R. Cubero, A. L. Valerio Zamora, S. L. Swift, C. Laurito and L. D. Gómez. 2006. Plio-Pleistocene Crocodylus (Crocodylia) from southwestern Costa Rica. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 41(1):1-7 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]