Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Here we studied new fossil chondrichthyans from two localities, Río de Las Minas, and Sierra Dorotea, both in the Magallanes Region, southernmost Chile. In Río de Las Minas, the upper section of the Priabonian Loreto Formation have yielded material referable to the taxa Megascyliorhinus sp., Pristiophorus sp., Rhinoptera sp., and Callorhinchus sp. In Sierra Dorotea, middle-to-late Eocene levels of the Río Turbio Formation have provided teeth referable to the taxa Striatolamia macrota (Agassiz), Palaeohypotodus rutoti (Winkler), Squalus aff. weltoni Long, Carcharias sp., Paraorthacodus sp., Rhinoptera sp., and indeterminate Myliobatids. These new records show the presence of common chondrichtyan diversity along most of the Magallanes Basin. The new record of Paraorthacodus sp. and P. rutoti, support the extension of their respective biochrons in the Magallanes Basin and likely in the southeastern Pacific.

The late-glacial sedimentologic and geomorphic record of the former Patagonian ice sheet remains mostly unstudied despite the fact that it affords invaluable evidence for glaciologic processes during the last glacial-interglacial transition (i.e., 18-11.5 ka). This information is critical if landforms (e.g., moraines) and associated sediments are to be used for paleoclimate reconstruction. El Canal stratigraphic section in Torres del Paine, southern Chile (51ºS), provides one of the few complete late-glacial morphostratigraphic records preserved on land in Patagonia that has not been reworked by postglacial lake or marine transgressions. Therefore, it provides unique evidence for reconstructing former environments, processes and fluctuations along the ice front at the end of the last glaciation. Here, we present results of a morphostratigraphic study of this site, which was shaped during the late-glacial Torres del Paine-TDP II, III and IV glacier fluctuations. We document the presence of eight sediment lithofacies associations and six stratigraphic sections that expose a complete record of proximal to distal subaqueous processes, which we link to phases of glacier advance (e.g., moraine building) and retreat. During the late-glacial, the Lago del Toro ice lobe pushed and glaciotectonized ice-contact lake sediments several times to shape the TDP moraine ridges fringing present-day lake. The saw-toothed morphology of the ridges confirms the structural origin of these landforms. Based on sediment facies associations, we conclude that local glacial lakes developed along the ice front during deposition of the late-glacial TDP II-IV moraine belts, suggesting that collapse, and associated continental drainage diversion, of major regional-size lakes in Torres del Paine had occurred during this time.

The Candeleros Formation is represented by a succession of deposits that represent terminal fans starting to fill a foreland basin (back-arc) during the Albian. The different sub-environments of the terminal fan suggest low gradients during the onset of deposition of the Río Limay Subgroup (Neuquén Group). The terminal fan system is represented by distributary zone (TF-DZ), distributary zone-base zone (TF-DZBZ) and base zone deposits (TF-BZ). Its most notable feature is the presence of bitumen in “pockets” and scattered in the sandstone channel fill and crevasse splays deposit. In this system the feeder zone of the terminal fan system has not been identified, however, the distribution of architectural elements and paleocurrent data allow us to infer that the catchment area of the backbone would have been located to the NNW/NW. Distributary zone deposits are characterized by thick deposits of low sinuosity channel, with a high degree of connectivity and strong vertical aggradation of channel belts. Deposits of distributary zone-base zone are characterized by a higher density of channel deposits/distributary plain, but with belt channel less thick, longer laterally, greater width/thickness ratio and connectivity in the braided deposits. The distal parts of the terminal fan are well represented and vary only in the channelized deposits and mantle/floodplain ratio, which is abruptly reduced towards the flood basin connection. The importance of Candeleros Formation deposits is that they are remnants of accommodation that preserved the original architecture and represent exhumed reservoirs.

Early Miocene shallow marine deposits in the region of Lago Posadas-Meseta Belgrano (Argentina) represent part of the “Patagoniense” transgression, an Atlantic marine incursion that flooded large part of Patagonia, including the Austral (foreland) Basin (southern Patagonia). These deposits, referred as El Chacay (Argentina) or Guadal (Chile) formations, and the transition to the overlying Santa Cruz Formation were divided into seven facies: subtidal sand-bars, shallow marine sandy deposits, muddy shelf deposits, estuarine complex deposits, fluvial channels and fluvial floodplains. These are arranged in a general transgressive-regressive cycle, subdivided into two stratigraphic sequences, separated by a major erosional surface. 87Sr/86Sr ages from shell carbonate in eight oysters yielded an age range of 20.3 to 18.1 Ma for these “Patagoniense” deposits. Correlation with other dated “Patagoniense” sections in southern Patagonia, like those at Lago Argentino or Comodoro Rivadavia, indicates that they belong to a single transgression that flooded several Patagonian basins approximately at the same time. Eustasy, flexural subsidence created by tectonic loading in the adjacent fold-and-thrust belt, and basin floor paleo-topography controlled the duration of the depositional event and the sedimentation style of these shallow marine deposits.

Paleogene records of Cingulata Glyptodontidae are scarce. The only well described comes from the Paleogene of Argentine Patagonia. Two subfamilies have been reported for that period: Glyptatelinae and Propalaehoplophorinae. Until this contribution, the latter taxon was geographically restricted to the locality of El Pajarito (Late Oligocene, Deseadan SALMA), Chubut province, Argentina. Here we present and describe the northernmost record of a Paleogene Propalaehoplophorinae. The material is represented by three associated osteoderms of the dorsal carapace from the Fray Bentos Formation (Late Oligocene, Deseadan SALMA) in the locality of Cueva del Tigre, Chajarí, Entre Ríos province, Argentina. Morphologically, these remains are almost identical to those reported from the late Oligocene of the Patagonian region, showing that during the Paleogene the Propalaehoplophorinae had a larger latitudinal distribution than previously known.

A shallow marine invertebrate association is reported from a new Early Jurassic locality namely La Casilda, which is situated in the southwestern region of the Chubut Basin (Patagonia, Argentina). The marine deposits of La Casilda are located in the Río Genoa valley and bear a diverse invertebrate fauna including bivalves, gastropods, brachiopods, echinoderms and corals. A preliminary taxonomic analysis of the invertebrate fauna suggests that La Casilda deposits belong to the Mulanguiñeu Formation of late Pliensbachian-early Toarcian age, and may be coeval with those from the marine localities previously sampled in other regions of the Río Genoa valley. The preliminary results of a biodiversity analysis displayed that La Casilda is one of the most diverse localities at the Chubut Basin and could be assigned to the biofacies at the mixed siliciclastic-carbonate ramp proposed for the marine Early Jurassic at the Andean Basin of northern Chile. The evolution of the marine transgression during the early Pliensbachian-early Toarcian is also interpreted here in a time scale based on ammonite faunas, giving a preliminary temporal reconstruction of the entire Chubut Basin.

Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphic investigations of Cretaceous sediments within the southern high latitude Austral Basin, Argentina, have revealed the presence of a fragment of a silicoflagellate possibly belonging to the species Variramus aculeifera (Deflandre) McCartney, Wise, Harwood and Gersonde. Although only a fragment was identified in the samples examined from this locality, its presence is important, as it is only the second documented occurrence of an Early Cretaceous silicoflagellate. The specimen was found in a subsurface sample from the informal Palermo Aike Formation at Austral Basin. This stratigraphic level is interpreted as middle Albian on the basis of calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy. The specimen consists of a fragmented strut with broken spines at the base, which allows the observation of the hollow skeletal structure. The strut is curved and slightly expanded at the widest part, which are characteristics diagnostic of the genus Variramus.

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