Abstract
The chronology, sedimentary history, and paleoecology of the Tarija Basin (Bolivia), one of the richest Pleistocene mammalian sites in South America, are revised here based on a multidisciplinary study, including stratigraphy, sedimentology, geomorphology, paleontology, isotope geochemistry, and 14C geochronology. Previous studies have indicated a Middle Pleistocene age for this classic locality. We have been able to obtain a series of 14C dates encompassing all the fossil-bearing sequences previously studied in the Tarija Basin. The dated layers range in age from about 44,000 to 21,000 radiocarbon years before present (BP), indicating that the Tarija fauna is much younger than previously thought. Glacial advances correlated to marine isotopic stages (MIS) 4 and 2 (ca. 62 and 20 ka BP, respectively) are also documented at the base and at the very top of the Tarija–Padcaya succession, respectively, indicating that the Bolivian Altiplano was not dry but sustained an ice cap during the Last Glacial Maximum. The results of this multidisciplinary study enable us to redefine the chronological limits of the Tarija sequence and of its faunal assemblage and to shift this paleontological, paleoclimatological, and paleoecological framework to the time interval from MIS 4 to MIS 2.
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Acknowledgment
We thank G. Ficcarelli for initiating the Italian Research Program on the Pleistocene/Holocene land mammals in South America and A. Longinelli because his precious advice substantially improved this manuscript. We are grateful to the staff of the Tarija Museo Nacional Paleontologico–Arquelogico for their technical support and friendship. We thank the Italian Embassy, Padre Lorenzo Calzavarini of the San Francisco monastery in Tarija and Dr. A. Paolillo (Crocetta del Montello) for their precious logistical help during field work in Bolivia. For revision of the English text, we thank Ian Heath, Sabrina Innocenti, Fritz Westover, and Ellen K. Herman. This work was financially supported by the Italian MIUR (COFIN 2003 to MC and LR) and Italian Foreign Ministry (to LR) grants as well as by grants from the Siena, Florence and Parma Universities.
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Coltorti, M., Abbazzi, L., Ferretti, M.P. et al. Last Glacial mammals in South America: a new scenario from the Tarija Basin (Bolivia). Naturwissenschaften 94, 288–299 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0196-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0196-9