PBDB Collection

Calera Avellaneda quarry - Body B in Facies Calera (Pliocene of Argentina)

Also known as near Olavarría

Where: Buenos Aires, Argentina (37.0° S, 60.2° W: paleocoordinates 37.0° S, 59.1° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: El Polvorín Formation, Chapadmalalan (4.0 - 3.0 Ma)

• de los Reyes 2013: The age of this sedimentary sequence (“Cantera Avellaneda”) is still poorly known (Prado et al., 1998). Recently, based on the presence of the rodent Phugatherium novum (Hydrochaeridae), Deschamps et al. (2012) suggested that this sequence should be correlated with the Chapadmalal Formation (Chapadmalalan Age/Stage). In addition to the specimen Xen-30, the following taxa were exhumed from Body B: Microtragulus reigi (Argyrolagidae), Phugatherium novum, Promacrauchenia (Machraucheniidae), Eumysops (Echimiydae), Cricetidae indet., Paedotherium cf. typicum (Hegetotheriidae), and Lama (Camelidae). This paleofaunistic assemblage is characteristic of the late Pliocene and, from a biostratigraphic point of view, could be more recent than the Chapadmalalan Age. The bearing level is included in the “Calera Facies” of the El Polvorín Formation (Poiré et al., 2005, 2007). This geological unit overlaps in discordance to the Loma Negra Formation (Borrelo, 1966) of the Sierras Bayas Group (Dalla Salda and Iñiguez, 1970; Poiré, 1993), and it is covered by the “La Esperanza” Formation (Poiré, 2009).

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•Zurita, et al. 2016: Chapadmalalan, upper Pliocene (see Poire´ et al. 2005; De los Reyes et al. 2013)

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•Quiñones et al. 2020: A large number of continental vertebrates have been collected from this formation, which allowed establishing a relative Stage/Age Chapadmalalan-Marplatan (De los Reyes et al., 2013; Deschamps et al., 2013; Min~o-Boilini et al., 2019).

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; bioturbated, silty sandstone

• de los Reyes, 2013: The fine-grained facies of Body B, where the specimen Xen-30 remains were exhumed, are possible to be interpreted as a decantation deposit included in a shallow water body located in an abandoned channel, which was then completely edaphized.

• de los Reyes 2013: The “Calera Facies” is composed of lentiform sandstone bodies and massive mudstones with scarce, fine, conglomerate levels. On the other hand, four lenticular sandstone bodies were recognized in the north side of the “Calera Avellaneda” quarry, where the material was exhumed (Figure 2). Body (B): it is visible up to 5 m thickness and is more than 100 m wide (limit not visible), composed of silty-sandstone as Body (A) but with medium- scale (0.2 m x 0.5 m average) trough cross-bedding, which changes laterally to massive pelites with soil prismatic-texture, manganese-infilled cuttans and bioturbation in galleries of simple tunnels. The glyptodont Xen-30 comes from this level.

Size class: macrofossils

• de los Reyes, 2013: Bite marks were observed over the neural apophysis of the medium region of the vertebral column.

Collection methods: de los Reyes, 2013: specimens housed within Collection “Cementos Avel- laneda” Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Primary reference: M. de los Reyes, D. Poiré, L. Soibelzon, A. E. Zurita, and M. J. Arrouy. 2013. First evidence of scavenging of a Glyptodont (Mammalia, Glyptodontidae) from the Pliocene of the Pampean region (Argentina): taphonomic and paleoecological remarks. Palaeontologia Electronica 16(2):1-13 [P. Mannion/G. Varnham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 202340: authorized by Philip Mannion, entered by Grace Varnham on 08.07.2019, edited by Miranta Kouvari

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names

Mammalia
Cingulata -	cf. Eosclerocalyptus lineatus cf. Eosclerocalyptus lineatus Ameghino 1888 edentate Xen-30
Cingulata - Panochthidae	Neosclerocalyptus sp.¹ Neosclerocalyptus sp.¹ Paula Couto 1957 edentate Xen-30, CCA-16A, CCA-21
Cingulata - Glyptodontidae	cf. Eleutherocercus antiquus² cf. Eleutherocercus antiquus² Ameghino 1887 glyptodon Xen 34, Xen 81-1 (1–5)
Notoungulata - Hegetotheriidae	Paedotherium cf. typicum Paedotherium cf. typicum Ameghino 1887 notoungulate
Artiodactyla - Camelidae	Lama sp. Lama sp. Cuvier 1800 camel
Panameriungulata - Macraucheniidae	Promacrauchenia sp. Promacrauchenia sp. Ameghino 1904 placental
Rodentia - Hydrochoeridae	Phugatherium novum Phugatherium novum Ameghino 1908 caviomorph
Rodentia - Echimyidae	Eumysops sp. Eumysops sp. Ameghino spiny rat
Rodentia - Cricetidae	Cricetidae indet. Cricetidae indet. Fischer von Waldheim 1817 mouse
Polydolopimorphia - Argyrolagidae	Microtragulus reigi Microtragulus reigi Simpson 1970 metatherian

¹Quiñones et al. 2020; ²Zurita et al. 2016