Andean Geology 46 (2): 383-420. May, 2019 Andean Geology doi: 10.5027/andgeoV46n2-3128 www.andeangeology.cl Sedimentology and fossil vertebrates of the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene) in Lago Posadas, southwestern Patagonia, Argentina *José I. Cuitiño1, Sergio F. Vizcaíno2, 3, M. Susana Bargo2, 4, Inés Aramendía5 1 Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología (IPGP, CCT CONICET-CENPAT). Boulevard Brown 2915, Puerto Madryn (9120), Chubut, Argentina.
[email protected] 2 División Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Unidades de Investigación Anexo Museo, 60 y 122, La Plata (1900), Argentina.
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[email protected] 3 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) Argentina. 4 Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas (CIC), calle 526 entre 10 y 11, 1900 La Plata-Buenos Aires, Argentina. 5 Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de Ecosistemas Continentales (IPEEC, CCT CONICET-CENPAT). Boulevard Brown 2915, Puerto Madryn (9120), Chubut, Argentina.
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[email protected] ABSTRACT. Lago Posadas is located at the foot of the Southern Patagonian Andes, in southwestern Argentina, where the early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) shows thick and laterally continuous exposures. This region has been scarcely explored for fossil vertebrates since the first efforts by J.B. Hatcher in 1898-99. In this contribution, we performed sedimentologic and paleontological studies in order to reconstruct depositional