About
74
Publications
23,362
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,287
Citations
Introduction
My primary research interest is understanding the value of freshwater molluscs as proxies for reconstructing past changes during the Quaternary. I combine taphonomy and paleoecology to assess how accurately is assemblage composition and structure captured by the fossil record. My currrent research interests include past and present distributions of freshwater molluscs, shell preservation in different environments (actualistic taphonomy) and mollusc-based Quaternary reconstructions.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - present
January 2012 - present
January 2006 - present
Education
March 1998 - April 2002
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Field of study
- Distributional ecology and paleoecology of molluscs of the genus Heleobia in estuarine environments
March 1991 - October 1997
Publications
Publications (74)
A multi-indicator analysis, including diatoms, mollusks, pollen and non pollen palynomorphs (NNPs) was performed to reconstruct Las Mostazas lake environmental history during the Late Holocene, in order to provide detailed paleoenvironmental new data for the southeastern Pampa plain. The record indicates the presence of a lake since ca. 3,400 cal....
El cambio climático global está modificando de modo acelerado las características de los hábitats, y eso tiene un impacto sobre las comunidades que ya se encuentran alteradas por impactos antrópicos anteriores. ¿Cómo eran las comunidades no impactadas? Las únicas evidencias que tenemos están alojadas en los restos de los organismos, hallados sobre...
Premortem and postmortem processes significantly influence the formation of the molluscan fossil record in freshwater environments. Despite their importance for paleoenvironmental studies, they remain poorly understood. In Pampean shallow lakes, Holocene shell deposits of the euryhaline snail Heleobia parchappii show a relation with salinity, as pr...
Un viaje al origen y a la historia de las lagunas pampeanas reconstruidos a partir de los restos de organismos preservados en sus sedimentos.
The evolution of both Lake Hinojales-San Leoncio (37°23′S; 57°23′W) and Tobares (37°30′S; 57°28′W) was reconstructedusing pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, plant macrofossil remains and associated fauna, diatoms and mollusks. This is the first paleolimnological reconstruction covering the hydroclimatic variability over the
last 12 ka for the southea...
Quaternary lake systems have developed in many Andean intermontane valleys in northwestern Argentina in association with landslides, rock avalanches, and the development of large alluvial fans, caused either by tectonics, climate change, and/or increased rainfall. At the El Candado location, in the narrow, southern sector of the Quebrada del Toro (...
The present chapter includes an updated synthesis of the knowledegment acquired of the continental and marine molluscan and echinoderm faunas that inhabited the region currently occupied by the province of Chubut, during the Paleogene-Neogene interval. Although those associations were recognized by the middle of 19 th century, it was not until the...
The Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (37°42´S; 57°25´O), declared a World Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 1996, is situated in the southeastern Buenos Aires Province. The lagoon is divided into two well differentiated environments, an innermost shallow zone where the tidal effect is insignificant and an estuarine zone subjected to tidal action. The a...
Quaternary lake systems have developed in many Andean intermontane valleys in northwestern Argentina in association with landslides, rock avalanches, and the development of large alluvial fans, caused either by tectonics, climate change, and/or increased rainfall. At the El Candado location, in the narrow, southern sector of the Quebrada del Toro (...
Historically, the development of taphonomic studies in freshwater environments has been scarce and mainly restricted to the Northern Hemisphere, with almost no information on how taphonomic processes work (and eventually differ) in the Southern Hemisphere. We present here an overview of the main results obtained in actualistic taphonomic studies on...
Recent findings of noticeable changes in diatom preservation in the Holocene record of Pampean shallow lakes evidenced the need for carrying out actualistic studies to decipher the environmental significance of taphonomic signatures. In this chapter, we review a series of field and experimental studies recently conducted, focusing on the effect of...
We conducted a taphonomic field experiment to evaluate the effects of (1) depth below the sediment-water interface (SWI) and (2) time of exposure on the accrual of damage (particularly through dissolution) to empty mollusc shells in freshwater environments. The experiment, which lasted 30 months, was carried out in the littoral area of Lake Nahuel...
The value of taphonomic signatures as a source of paleoenvironmental information has been recognized at local and regional environmental scales. In environmentally heterogeneous shallow lakes, the habitat complexity provides an opportunity to evaluate the potential use of taphonomy to uncover environmental differences among within-lake sub-environm...
In order to elucidate the effect that physico-chemical lake characteristics exert on diatom valve preservation, the taphonomic signatures of the target taxon Cyclotella meneghiniana Kützing was assessed in twenty five shallow lakes of the Pampa plain of Argentina. Fragmentation and dissolution indices were quantitatively related to environmental va...
Molluscan taphonomic patterns below the sediment-water interface in three freshwater shallow lakes from the Southeastern Pampa Plain, Argentina (Nahuel Rucá, Las Mostazas, and Los Carpinchos), were analyzed in order to explore the taphonomic alteration suffered by mollusks with depth and determine if this taphonomic alteration varied locally within...
A seasonal sampling of sediments, columnand interstitialwater for physico-chemical analysiswere performed in littoral and open water areas in three freshwater shallow lakes (Nahuel Rucá, Las Mostazas and Los Carpinchos) from Southeastern Pampa plain, Argentina. The main objective of the present study is to evaluate how the characteristics of the de...
Three shallow lakes from the southeastern pampas, which are different in their physicochemical characteristics, were studied with the aim of comparing live/dead fidelity and preservation of mollusk shells. The studied lakes were Las Mostazas, Los Carpinchos and Nahuel Rucá, which proved different in terms of their specific richness, abundance, comp...
The aim of this chapter is to review the main research lines developed in Latin America, related to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on lacustrine mollusks.
OPERATOR BIAS AND REPLICABILITY IN COMPARATIVE TAPHONOMIC STUDIES. The operator effect is a well-known analytical bias already quantified in some taphonomic studies. However, the influence of operator bias in the replicability on taphonomic studies has still not been considered. Here, we quantified for the first time this bias using different multi...
When the young Charles Darwin explored the Atlantic coast of southern South America, he was impressed by its fossils—as he wrote in the first paragraph of the Origin of Species (1859) —and the magnitude of its “wide and desolate” plains (Darwin 1839, p. 124). Although his adventures on the Patagonian plains became more famous, Darwin’s first observ...
Assemblages composed of Heleobia parchappii and H. australis constitute the dominant elements in Quaternary deposits of the Pampean Region in the province of Buenos Aires. This study describes and analyzes the degree of preservation of shells of both species recovered from nine Holocene localities in order to describe and quantify taphonomic altera...
Actualistic studies in freshwater environments are scarce, limiting the interpretation of paleoenvironmental information obtained from the fossil record. The objectives of this study are to assess the taphonomic factors that affect the formation of mollusk assemblages in freshwater environments of the pampean region. Twenty sites were analyzed at r...
One of the limitations of paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on multiple bioindicators is a lack of knowledge on the differential preservation of hard parts, which may lead to biases in interpretation. This is particularly important when biological proxies differ in their intrinsic properties, such as skeletal mineralogy or size. We explored...
Freshwater mollusks (Classes Gastropoda and Bivalvia) are commonly represented in continental Quaternary sediments. Their fossil record is characterized by lower diversity than the marine record, with fossilization biased toward lowland and lake deposits. As most fossil taxa are referable to extant species, the environmental information gathered fr...
We analyzed variations in taxonomic composition, abundance, and preservation of freshwater mollusks during the mid- to late Holocene in three shallow lakes of the southeastern Pampa plain. Mollusks were obtained from core samples (110-140 cm long) from the deepest part of the lakes, and sampled at 1 cm intervals. Six species were identified: Heleob...
The variability in δ18O and δ13C composition of modern and fossil mollusk shells in central-western Argentina was assessed in order to contribute to a better understanding of their value as paleoclimatic indicators. Living mollusks were collected from 17 sites distributed along a latitudinal/altitudinal gradient in Mendoza Province. Quaternary moll...
The objectives of this study were to (a) analyze the distribution pattern of diatom assemblages in freshwater systems from central-western Argentina, (b) investigate the key climatic and limnological factors affecting the species distributions, and (c) evaluate the extent and limitations of diatoms as Quaternary paleoenvironmental indicators in the...
The preservation of mollusk remains below the sediment-water interface in Nahuel Rucá lake (37°37′S–37°25′W) was analyzed in order to determine the degree of taphonomic alteration and to estimate the vertical extension of the taphonomically active zone (TAZ). To achieve that, the preservation patterns observed in five cores sampled from the littora...
The compositional fidelity of dead assemblages—the extent to which subfossil remains reflect the composition, structure, and scale of the original living community—is an indispensable component of studies assessing the quality of the fossil record and the effects of taphonomic biases on species composition and diversity. The aim of the present stud...
New remains of Heleobia ameghini (Doering, 1884) are analysed. This is an extinct late Pleistocene gastropod species recovered from alluvial sections along the middle course of the Luján River. Detailed observations allowed establishing the main diagnostic characteristics of the species; these are compared with the data provided in the original des...
The aim of this study was to assess the potential of diatoms and mollusks as paleoenvironmental indicators in semiarid lakes of the Argentinean Pampas. At each lake, physical and chemical variables were quantified, and diatoms and mollusks collected. The relationships between environmental variables and biological assemblages were explored through...
New remains of Heleobia ameghini (Doering, 1884) are analysed. This is an extinct late Pleistocene gastropod species recovered from alluvial sections along the middle course of the Lujan River. Detailed observations allowed establishing the main diagnostic characteristics of the species; these are compared with the data provided in the original des...
The RNPMdP hosts five species of freshwater snails and two species of land snails. Among the former, the list includes Pomacea canaliculata
(Lamarck, 1822), Biomphalaria peregrina (d’Orbigny, 1835), Heleobia parchappii
(d’Orbigny, 1835), Uncancylus concentricus (d’Orbigny, 1835) and Stenophysa
marmorata (Guilding, 1828). Land snails are only rerese...
Gastropods are among the most ubiquitous shelly remains preserved in Quaternary non-marine sediments of the Neotropical Region, constituting an invaluable source of data for reconstructing past environments, in particular the hydrodynamics of past water bodies. There are several of these species that are widely known of being good indicators of env...
In this paper we present the results of the analysis carried out with the materials from Gruta de El Manzano archaeological site, located beside Grande River, in Malargue, southern Mendoza province. Using the new information, we discuss the site function, changes trough time, and remark his importance for the northern Patagonia discussion. The last...
El objetivo de este trabajo es definir unidades depositacionales y realizar inferencias paleoambientales a partir del análisis de facies y del contenido paleobiológico (moluscos, fitolitos y diatomeas) de depósitos acotados cronológicamente entre ca. <70.000 años y 11.000 años AP., Estadios Isotópicos de Oxígeno (EIO) 4 a 2, para la cuenca media de...
In this paper we present the results of the analysis carried out with the materials from Gruta de El Manzano archaeological site, located beside Grande River, in Malargüe, southern Mendoza province. Using the new information, we discuss the site function, changes trough time, and remark his importance for the northern Patagonia discussion. The last...
The chapter summarizes the main results obtained from a malacological research project carried out in Mendoza and San Luis in the last three years. From the integration of the results the paleoenvironmental background for the late Quaternary of central-western Argentina is analyzed and discussed. The oldest record of mollusks is given for 35-31 ka...
The aim of the present contribution is to assess whether the abundance of mollusk species in the Southern Pampas (Argentina), an environmentally homogeneous region, reflect the local conditions of water bodies. In order to test this hypothesis, a comprehensive study was conducted in 30 sites regularly distributed across the region. At each site, th...
Paleoclimatologists advocate learning from the past to know the natural and anthropogenically induced climatic shifts that occurred in the history of the Earth, and to estimate future changes in ecological systems related to the projected range of temperature increases. Framed within this context, current rates of global warming are unprecedented b...
The sedimentary sequences exposed in cutbanks of the middle course of the Luján river preserve important paleoenvironmental information on the late Quaternary climatic evolution of the north-eastern Pampean region. The objective of this paper is to define depositional units and infer the paleoenvironmental conditions from the analysis of the sedime...
Diatom assemblages preserved in continental sedimentary successions of the southern Pampas (Argentina) can provide useful
indicators of past environmental changes. Ecological data, however, are scarce. In order to provide modern data for diatom-based
paleoenvironmental reconstructions, sediments from shallow lakes and streams of the region were ana...
The objectives of this study were to (a) analyze the distribution pattern of molluscs in freshwater systems from central-western Argentina, (b) investigate the key environmental factors affecting the species distribution, and (c) compare Quaternary and modern mollusc assemblages in order to evaluate the extent and limitations of freshwater molluscs...
Death assemblages from contemporary marginal marine settings carved into ancient shell deposits are composed of fossil shells exhumed by currents or tides and shells derived from living populations. A better understanding of the bias produced by such a mixing process is of interest for studies that use modern death assemblages as analogues of simil...
The pulmonate land snail, Rumina decollata, is a highly invasive gastropod adapted to arid conditions, and native from the Mediterranean area. It was recorded for the first time in Argentina in 1988, in the northeastern Pampas of the Buenos Aires Province, a region characterized by a humid mesothermal climate with no water deficit. In the present c...
La dificultad para el reconocimiento de especies biológicas a partir de los limitados caracteres morfológicos que se preservan en los fósiles constituye uno de los principales problemas para relacionar la biología con la paleontología. Esta limitación adquiere una importancia significativa en el Cuaternario tardío debido a que la mayoría de las esp...
This paper is focused on the paleoecological analysis of a mollusc succession cropping out on the right margin of La Estacada stream in the Andean piedmont of Mendoza, Argentina (33°28′ S, 69°03′ W). The stratigraphic section, mainly composed of fine sands, interbedded with levels of silty clays and organic matter, records the interval between 35.2...
CENOZOIC INVERTEBRATES OF ARGENTINA. The Cenozoic rocks of Argentina contain a rich, exceptionally
well preserved and remarkable diverse marine and continental invertebrate fauna. The main goal
of the present synthesis consists in revealing the continuous progress of the scientific research performed
during the last 50 years dealing with these asse...
Pomacea canaliculata is the best known native snail from Argentina, a fact that has been enhanced since its establishment as a serious rice plague in Asian rice fields. However, from a paleontological viewpoint the knowledge of this species is far from being sound or integrated. Our aims are to review the fossil record of Pomacea in Argentina, to a...
We studied the main taphonomic attributes (breakage, orientation and size-frequency distribution) of modern shell piles of Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) accumulated by snail kites, in order to establish distinctive characteristics that allow the recognition of similar deposits in the fossil record. The study was conducted around three shallow lake...
The aim of this contribution is to reveal the potentiality of the geological and paleontological record preserved in the area of Llancanelo, Mendoza (34º/37ºS and 70º/67ºW), as sources of data for reconstructing the environmental history of the region during the late Quaternary. An emphasis on the geological description of the area, and the stratig...
Morphodynamic models have been applied to macrotidal beaches. They are based on unimodal grain sizes and average dynamic parameters as the wave height and period at the breaker zone. Bimodal gravel beaches do not fit to these models because a) grain size is subject to spatial segregations (gravel and granules at the upper beach zones and fine sand...
Morphodynamic models have been applied to macrotidal beaches. They are based on unimodal grain sizes and average dynamic parameters as the wave height and period at the breaker zone. Bimodal gravel beaches do not fit to these models because a) grain size is subject to spatial segregations (gravel and granules at the upper beach zones and fine sand...
The aim of this paper is to discuss the archaeological record of alluvial environments in arid-semi arid ecosystems. The Rincon del Atuel-1 site from San Rafael, Mendoza, is presented as a case study. Specifically, the site´s stratigraphy and sedimentology are described, together with the chronology obtained through 14 C and TL. With this informati...
The growth of the Ficopomatus
enigmaticus reefs was measured throughout a coastal lagoon at different temporal and spatial scales (over 24 years, annually and monthly throughout the coastal lagoon). The results show that reef cover increased in the last 24 years, and many neighbouring reefs have coalesced into large platforms. Growth rate varies sp...
Sedimentological, malacological, and pollen analyses from 14C-dated alluvial sections from the Luján River provide a detailed record of environmental changes during the Holocene in the northeastern Pampas of Argentina. From 11,200 to 9000 14C yr B.P., both sedimentary and biological components suggest that the depositional environment was eutrophic...
The variations in the life cycles and growth of the brackish-water rissooidean snails Heleobia australis (d’Orbigny, 1835) and Heleobia conexa (Gaillard, 1974) were studied along a gradient of estuarine conditions from the outer to the inner reaches of the Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (Argentina). The study focused on the results obtained in a sampl...
Heleobia parchappii (d’Orbigny, 1835) is a rissooidean snail very widespread in freshwater environments of Argentina, occurring at salinities < 1‰. In 1998, we found a population of this species inhabiting a brackish canal (10−34‰) located close to the headwaters of the Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (37º31’07”S, 57º18’30”W, Buenos Aires, Argentina)....
An estuarine sequence outcropping at La Ballenera Creek (BuenosAires Province), dated between 6,800 and 4,100 14C years BP, wasinvestigated for diatoms and molluscs. The sea level history along the BuenosAires coastline has been reconstructed from discrete beach ridge sequencesalong low-lying plains. The La Ballenera profile is located on a cliffco...
This study examined the environmental factors influencing the distribution and abundance of hydrobiid snails in two estuaries on the northeastern coast of Argentina in a coastal lagoon (Mar Chiquita, 378409S, 578209W) and a partially mixed estuary (Queque´n Grande, 388309S, 588459W). Five intertidal study sites in each estuary represented a gradien...
Sedimentary sequences 14C dated from the arroyo Las Brusquitas area, southeastern Buenos Aires province, provided records of the Late Pleistocene - Holocene paleoenvironmental history. Stratigraphical, malacological and palynomorphs analyses allowed to explain the environmental changes especially in relation to sea-level variations, as well as to r...
Tagelus Plebeius (Lightfoot, 1786) (Mollusca: Bivalvia) Bioturbations in a Holocene Estuarine Environment (Quequén Grande River, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina). Elongated traces, showing a lower v-shape closed end have been identified in mid Holocene estuarine deposits exposed along the lower reach of the Quequén Grande River, Argentina (38°34′3...
Taphonomic aspects of dense deposits of Littoridina australis (d'Orbigny) and Littoridina parchappii (d'Orbigny), from a Holocene outcrop located at the Quequen Grande river, were used as paleobiological and paleoenvironmental indicators to reconstruct the evolution of the estuarine environment between circa 7,000 and 5,000 14C yr BP. Levels with d...
The present work supports the idea that the archaeological record constitutes a valid approach to understand the relationship between humans and environment. It not only constitutes a paleoecological record because of the recovery of biological evidences associated to human occupations but due to the fact that humans themselves are significant comp...
