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Parasitic diversity found in coprolites of camelids during the Holocene

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Abstract

Knowledge of parasitic infections to which fauna was exposed in the past provides information on the geographical origin of some parasites, on the possible dispersal routes and for archaeological fauna on the potential zoonotic risk that human and animal populations could be exposed. The aim of the present study was to examine the gastrointestinal parasite present in camelid coprolites collected from the archaeological site Cerro Casa de Piedra, cave 7 (CCP7), Patagonia, Argentina. Coprolites were collected from different stratified sequences dating from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition to the late Holocene. Paleoparasitological examination revealed the presence of eggs of Trichostrongylidae attributed to Lamanema chavezi or Nematodirus lamae, eggs of three unidentified capillariids, Strongylus-type eggs and oocysts of Eimeria macusaniensis. These parasites affected camelids living in the studied area since the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, about 10,000 years ago. Gastrointestinal parasite fauna of patagonian camelids did not vary significatively from Pleistocene-Holocene transition to late Holocene, although environmental conditions fluctuated greatly throughout this period, as indicative of the strength and the stability of these associations over time. In this study, the zoonotic and biogeography importance of parasites of camelids are also discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Our most grateful thanks to the archaeologist Maria Teresa Civalero and Carlos Alberto Aschero for bringing us the archaeological samples.

This work was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMDP), Argentina (EXA 680/14), the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecno-lógicas (CONICET), Argentina (PIP 090) and FONCyT (PICT 2316).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoparasitología y arqueología contextual, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Juan B. Justo 2550, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Verónica Taglioretti & Norma Haydée Sardella

  2. Laboratorio de Paleoparasitología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Funes 3350, 7600, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Verónica Taglioretti & Martín Horacio Fugassa

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  1. Verónica Taglioretti
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  2. Martín Horacio Fugassa
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  3. Norma Haydée Sardella
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Correspondence to Verónica Taglioretti.

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Taglioretti, V., Fugassa, M.H. & Sardella, N.H. Parasitic diversity found in coprolites of camelids during the Holocene. Parasitol Res 114, 2459–2464 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4442-y

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