Cerro Ballena (Miocene to of Chile)

Where: Chile (27.0° S, 70.8° W: paleocoordinates 27.3° S, 68.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Bahía Inglesa Formation, Tortonian to Tortonian (11.6 - 5.3 Ma)

• the strata in Cerro Ballena were deposited at a time period in between the deposition of the ELJ and MTM horizons of the Pisco Formation. Thus, we infer a Late Miocene age (or Late Tortonian to Early Messinian stage) for the Bah ́ıa Inglesa Formation part of the section at Cerro Ballena

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; fine sandstone

• The assemblage at Cerro Ballena shares specific features with HAB-mediated mass strandings.

•lagoonal/restricted shallow subtidal, submarine canyon, upper continental slope to outer shelf

• fine to very fine-grained sandstones

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

Primary reference: N. D. Pyenson, C. S. Gutstein, J. F. Parham, J. P. Le Roux, C. C. Chavarría, H. Little, A. Metallo, V. Rossi, A. M. Valenzuela-Toro, J. Velez-Juarbe, C. M. Santelli, D. R. Rogers, M. A. Cozzuol and M. E. Suárez. 2014. Repeated mass strandings of Miocene marine mammals from Atacama Region of Chile point to sudden death at sea. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281(1781):20133316 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 154642: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 27.02.2014

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Megatherioidea - Nothrotheriidae
Thalassocnus natans Muizon and McDonald 1995 edentate
 Carnivora - Phocidae
Phocidae indet. Gray 1821 seal
Australophoca changorum Valenzuela-Toro et al. 2016 seal
Acrophoca sp. Muizon 1981 seal
 Cetacea -
Delphinoidea indet. Flower 1865 toothed whale
 Cetacea - Odobenocetopsidae
Odobenocetops sp. Muizon 1993 toothed whale
 Cetacea -
Physeteroidea indet. Gray 1868 toothed whale
 Cetacea - Balaenopteridae
Balaenopteridae indet. Gray 1864 rorqual
Actinopteri
 Istiophoriformes - Istiophoridae
 Istiophoriformes - Xiphiidae
Xiphiidae indet. Swainson 1839 sword fish
Chondrichthyes
 Lamniformes - Lamnidae
Carcharodon hastalis Agassiz 1838 white shark