Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas ISSN: 1026-8774 [email protected] Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México México Kerber, Leonardo; Gregis Pitana, Vanessa; Ribeiro, Ana Maria; Schmaltz Hsiou, Annie; Oliveira, Edison V. Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek (Touro Passo Formation), southern Brazil: a review Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, vol. 31, núm. 2, 2014, pp. 248-259 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Querétaro, México Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=57231524008 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto REVISTAKerber et al.MEXICANA DE CIENCIAS GEOLÓGICAS v. 31, núm. 2, 2014, p. 248-259 Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek (Touro Passo Formation), southern Brazil: a review Leonardo Kerber1*, Vanessa Gregis Pitana2, Ana Maria Ribeiro1, Annie Schmaltz Hsiou3, and Edison V. Oliveira4 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and Seção de Paleontologia, Museu de Ciências Naturais, Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Salvador França, 1427, 90690-000, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil. 2 In memoriam. 3 Departamento de Biologia, FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo; Av. Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil. 4 Departamento de Geologia, Centro de Tecnologia e Geociências, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife-PE, Brazil. * [email protected] ABSTRACT estratos del Arroyo Touro Passo pudo haber contribuido a esta mezcla de fauna. Touro Passo Creek is one of the most important fossiliferous late Pleistocene localities from southern Brazil. Although fossil vertebrates Palabras clave: mamíferos; latitudes medias; Tayassu pecari; Pleistoceno collected from this locality have been studied since the 1970s, several tardio; Cuaternario; Rio Grande do Sul; Brasil. questions remain open. This paper provides a review of the knowledge on this subject accumulated since the original proposition of the Touro Passo Formation in 1976. The fossil assemblages of Touro INTRODUCTION Passo Creek show a predominance of mammals, and among them, artiodactyls and cingulates are the most diverse. The available absolute The study of the fossil vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek (TPC) ages indicate that the fine-grained lithological levels (at least) were (western region of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil) is deposited during humid conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum, very recent when compared with other late Pleistocene localities from within oxygen isotope stages 3 and 2. The mammal assemblages contain South America. The historical background of this research is marked a mixture of intertropical and pampean taxa. The large span of time by two periods: the first, during the 1970s and the second during the that encompasses the deposition of the Touro Passo Creek beds could 1990s up to the present day, when new fieldwork efforts began. have contributed to this faunal mixture. The first fieldwork trips to TPC had financial support from the Smithsonian Institute, USA, and FAPERGS-RS, Brazil, during the Key words: mammals; middle latitudes; Tayassu pecari; Quaternary; “Paleo-Indian Research Project,” headed by the archeologist Eurico Rio Grande do Sul; Brazil. Theófilo Miller, who conducted several expeditions into the western region of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (see Milder, 2000) with the objective of collecting archaeological evidence of the oldest human RESUMEN populations from southern Brazil. The fossils collected on these expedi- tions were studied by the paleontologist Miguel Bombin with assistance El Arroyo Touro Passo es una de las más importantes localidades of Carlos de Paula Couto and first mentioned in Bombin (1976), which con fósiles pleistocénicos del sur de Brasil. Aunque los vertebrados formally defined the Touro Passo Formation. In that paper, the author colectados en esta localidad han sido estudiados desde la década de presented only a checklist, without additional studies of these fossils 1970, varias preguntas siguen abiertas. En este trabajo se presenta una (e.g., collection number, morphological descriptions, taxonomic and revisión del conocimiento acumulado desde la proposición original de la systematic relationships, and stratigraphic provenance). The main goal Formación Touro Passo en 1976. Las asociaciones fosilíferas contienen of Bombin (1976) was to propose geological and paleoenvironmental una predominancia de fósiles de mamíferos, y entre estos, los artiodáctilos interpretations for the Touro Passo Formation. y cingulados son los más diversos. Las edades absolutas muestran que los After this first approach, the knowledge about the vertebrate fauna niveles litológicos de grano fino (por lo menos) se depositaron durante of TPC did not advance until the early 1990s when a study conducted by condiciones más húmedas, en los estadios isotópicos 3 y 2. Los vertebrados Oliveira (1992) summarized the research on the fossiliferous localities muestran una mezcla de afinidades entre taxones de afinidad pampeana of the TPC. Subsequently, several papers have been published on the e intertropical. El largo intervalo de tiempo en que se depositaron los fossil vertebrates collected along this creek (e.g., Oliveira, 1996, 1999; Kerber, L., Pitana, V.G., Ribeiro, A.M., Hsiou, A.S., Oliveira, E.V., 2014, Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek (Touro Passo Formation), southern Brazil: a review: Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, v. 31, núm. 2, p. 248-259. 248 RMCG | v. 31 | núm. 2 | www.rmcg.unam.mx Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek, Southern Brazil Oliveira et al., 1999; Martins and Oliveira, 2003; Pitana and Ribeiro, vertebrates collection, Museu de Ciências da Pontifícia Universidade 2007; Scherer et al., 2007, 2009; Hsiou, 2007, 2009; Kerber and Oliveira, Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre; UFSM, paleovertebrates 2008a,b; Oliveira and Kerber, 2009; Gasparini et al., 2009; Ribeiro and collection, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria. Scherer, 2009; Pitana, 2011; Kerber and Ribeiro, 2011; Kerber et al. 2011a, 2011b, in press; Pitana et al., 2013). It has been proposed that the southern Brazilian (South American GEOLOGICAL SETTING middle-latitude) late Pleistocene fauna is from a transitional area with intertropical (sensu Cartelle, 1999) and pampean (Cione and Tonni, The Touro Passo Creek is located in Uruguaiana, State of Rio 1999) paleobiogeographic influences (e.g., Oliveira, 1999 among sev- Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, near to the border with Uruguay and eral others). Hence, the correct identification of the material is very Argentina (Figure 1). This creek is a tributary of the Uruguay River important for the understanding of these paleobiogeographic patterns. basin and late Pleistocene lithologies are exposed along its margins. Today, almost 40 years after the original description of this formation Most of the late Pleistocene strata are currently covered by vegetation, in 1976 by Miguel Bombin, we provide a historical review of the fos- so the fossiliferous levels are only exposed in some areas. To date, we sil vertebrates from this geologic unit, including new remains, and are studying six localities where the fossils are more abundant (Figure a discussion about the paleobiogeographic and paleoenvironmental 1, Appendix A). patterns. The lithofacies are represented by conglomeratic facies overlapped by silt and sand levels, both deposited on the basalts of the Serra Geral Formation (Figure 2). Carbonate nodules that represent post- INSTITUTIONAL ABBREVIATIONS depositional pedogenesis (Bombin, 1976) are found within the sandy and silty strata, but it is not clear yet when they were formed. MCN-PV, paleovertebrates collection, Museu de Ciências Naturais The available radiometric dates obtained by thermoluminescence da Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre; MCPU- (TL) (sediments), 14C (charcoal), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) PV, paleovertebrates collection, Museu de Ciências da Pontifícia (mollusks) and electron spin resonance (ESR) (fossil teeth) range from Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguaiana; MCP, paleo- ~42 to ~10 ka BP (Bombin, 1976; Miller, 1987; Milder, 2000; Da-Rosa, Figure 1. Location of Touro Passo Creek and the studied sites: 1. Ponte Velha II; 2. Ponte Velha I; 3. Milton Almeida; 4. Barranca Grande; 5. Myocastor. Source of the satellite image: Google Earth, March, 11, 2013. RMCG | v. 31 | núm. 2 | www.rmcg.unam.mx 249 Kerber et al. Figure 2. Schematic transversal section of Touro Passo Creek. See stratigraphic profiles in Oliveira and Kerber (2009) and Kerber and Ribeiro (2011). 2003; Kotzian et al., 2005, Kerber et al., 2011b), and therefore indicate a et al., 2013). Therefore, the presence of G. robustum in another late latest Pleistocene age (Table 1). The first studies considered the Touro Pleistocene locality of southern Brazil is confirmed on the basis of Passo Formation as late Pleistocene–Holocene (e.g., Bombin, 1976; mandibular and postcranial remains (Pitana et al., 2013). Oliveira, 1992), but with the increase in absolute ages from this unit, the Touro Passo Formation is now considered exclusively from the latest Megatheriidae Gray, 1821 Pleistocene (Oliveira, 1999). Holocene sedimentary levels (including