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Introduction
My background is in geological sciences, with specialization in sedimentology and stratigraphy. My research project is concerned with the study of Miocene sedimentary successions of Patagonia. Based on sedimentological and isotopic evidence, I focus on the reconstruction of the Miocene marine environments. I use Sr and U-Pb isotopic data for age calibrations, while C and O isotopes are being used to reconstruct ocean paleotemperatures, paleosalinities and paleoecology of calcareous fossils.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2015 - January 2017
January 2015 - January 2017
September 2015 - April 2016
Education
February 1999 - August 2005
Publications
Publications (112)
The stratigraphy and age of the Patagoniense and Entrerriense Miocene marine deposits in northernmost Patagonia are not well established. In the Gran Bajo Del Gualicho and Las Grutas area (Río Negro Province, Argentina), these deposits are included in the Gran Bajo Del Gualicho Formation (GBDGF), which is divided into the lower Saladar Member and t...
The CO tuff is one of the volumetrically largest volcaniclastic events so far recorded in the Early-Middle Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (Patagonian Argentina). It represents aeolian processes, related with westerlies, that reworked and transported enormous quantities of volcanic ash from the Andes into the continental interior that accumulated in f...
The present study focuses on the morphosedimentary organization and sediment infilling stratigraphy of one of the largest estuaries of southern Patagonia in Argentina. With a tidal range up to 12 m, the area is subject to extreme tidal conditions, combined with moderate offshore wave climate, strong and constant westerly winds, and contrasted water...
The southern coast of Argentina is known for its high tidal ranges and large coarse-grained coastal barriers that have emerged over time as a result of the regional uplift. Well-preserved barriers can provide critical information about the morphological evolution of the coastal areas, and the relative evolution of the mean sea level, as long as the...
Fieldwork at Península Valdés (Chubut, Argentina) in the Puerto Madryn Formation (Late Miocene) resulted in the discovery of a well-preserved, almost fully articulated, baleen whale (Cetacea, Mysticeti). This specimen, one of the most complete balaenid skeletons known from the Neogene of Argentina and worldwide, was the focus of a taphonomic analys...
La Formación Salamanca (Cretácico tardío - Paleoceno) se extiende por amplios sectores del este de la provincia de Chubut, y está compuesta mayormente por sedimentitas marinas. Generalmente su litología es de arcilitas y limolitas ferruginosas y areniscas glauconíticas y calcáreas. Tiene dos miembros, Hansen (inferior, también conocido como Banco N...
La Formación Arroyo Verde fue propuesta para incluir un afloramiento de sedimentitas marinas en el noreste de la provincia de Chubut, cercano al asentamiento homónimo, consistente en conglomerados carbonáticos (coquinas) de poco espesor con abundante contenido fósil. Posteriormente, se asignó a esta formación otro afloramiento en Puesto Saleski, ub...
Los discínidos son un grupo de braquiópodos inarticulados con valvas organofosfáticas y un registro fósil escaso. Se trata de organismos sésiles que viven adheridos por un pedúnculo a diferentes sustratos. Recientemente fue descripta su presencia en la Fm. Gaiman (Mioceno temprano), constituyendo el primer registro del grupo en el Cenozoico de Pata...
La Formación Puerto Madryn (Mioceno Tardío, NE de Chubut) es una sucesión de
aproximadamente 150 metros de fangolitas, coquinas, areniscas y areniscas fangosas, con laminación y estratificación entrecruzada, aunque con frecuencia está completamente bioturbada. La misma representa ambientes marinos someros y transicionales, con una tendencia transgr...
Los silicoflagelados constituyen un grupo de algas unicelulares marinas que poseen un
esqueleto silíceo. A pesar de que el grupo tiene un amplio rango estratigráfico, desde el
Cretácico hasta la actualidad, el conocimiento de los silicoflagelados fósiles en Argentina
es escaso. Solo se ha mencionado un registro para el Cretácico Temprano y se conoc...
Paleoclimate estimations (i.e. paleotemperatures and paleoprecipitations) from paleosols are important for the understanding of foreland basins evolution in compressive contexts. The study area encompasses Miocene foreland basin deposits from the northwestern edge of the Austral-Magallanes basin (AMB, c. 47° 30’ SL), which are closely related to th...
A 209 m-thick sedimentary succession exposed at Estancia Redonda Chica locality (northeastern Patagonia, Argentina) includes both the Gaiman Formation (Early Miocene) and the Puerto Madryn Formation (Late Miocene). Based on the sedimentologic analysis, the Gaiman Formation is interpreted as accumulated in a marine inner shelf to shoreline environme...
Los bivalvos carditídos de la tribu Venericorini (originalmente conocidos como 'planicostados') de Argentina fueron estudiados extensamente desde el punto de vista sistemático y estratigráfico. Se conoce material de este grupo para diversas unidades del Cenozoico de Patagonia y para Entre Ríos. Entre las primeras, la presencia del grupo fue mencion...
La Formación Gaiman (Mioceno inferior-¿medio) se encuentra ampliamente extendida en el NE de Chubut. Se compone de fangolitas, areniscas y tobas finas, acumuladas en ambientes marinos desde offshore hasta litorales. Contiene abundantes y diversos invertebrados y vertebrados fósiles marinos. Aunque la mayor parte de esta unidad se encuentra totalmen...
Bryn Gwyn es una localidad fosilífera clásica ubicada en el margen sur del Valle Inferior del Río Chubut, al sur de la localidad de Gaiman. En ella se encuentra aflorante la Formación Gaiman, cuyo perfil tipo fue descripto en esta localidad. Se trata de una sucesión de tobas, pelitas y areniscas con algunas coquinas y abundante bioturbación, deposi...
La Formación Gaiman (FG; Mioceno temprano), que aflora en el noreste de Chubut, incluye un rico y diverso registro fósil de cetáceos (ballenas y delfines), el cual documenta uno de los momentos más importantes de la historia evolutiva del grupo. En la última década se han incrementado tanto los estudios paleobiológicos y tafonómicos de cetáceos com...
In this article, controlling factors on radar interferometric coherence
(IC) in a region of the Chubut River are analysed, since its
variations could indicate potential sediment transfer zones.
Studied control factors are vegetation cover, development of the
drainage network, rainfall and winds. The results show that the
major control over IC loss...
Platanistoidea remains one of the most evolutionarily intriguing lineages of toothed whales (Odontoceti). The clade comprises mostly extinct species from the late Oligocene–early Miocene onward and a single extant riverine genus (Platanista). There is an ongoing debate as to the membership of Platanistoidea and the causes of their near extinction....
Dear LAJSBA readers, this editorial note has the intention to updateyou with the news from our journal. In this sense, we want to tell you that our editorial team has been renewedwith the incorporation of two Associate Editors, José I. Cuitiño(CONICET, Argentina) and Giorgio Basilici (UNICAMP, Brazil). We want to express deeply thanks to RenataNett...
Detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology is a widely used technique for interpreting sedimentary provenance in basin systems. This, combined with detailed sedimentary facies interpretation and stratigraphy evolution, has been extensively applied in foreland basin settings to understand tectonic processes by tracking the exposure and erosion of distinct s...
The early–middle Miocene continental Cerro Boleadoras Formation (CBF) crops out in the area of Cerro Boleadoras and Cerro Plomo on the western slope of the Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires, northwestern Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The lower levels of the CBF consist of laterally extensive medium to pebbly sandstone beds with trough cross-bedding, i...
Cetacean bone encrustation has been interpreted as the final (reef) stage of the ecological succession in deep marine whale-falls. However, little is known about the communities that develop in association with carcasses deposited in shallow marine environments. Knowledge about fossil and modern whale-fall studies in Argentina is null. Recent prosp...
La provincia de Chubut presenta un clima mayormente árido y frío con un número reducido de grandes ríos, entre los cuales el Río Chubut es el más importante. La cuenca del Río Chubut se encuentra dividida en tres subcuencas: Valle Superior (VARCH), Valle Medio (VAMERCH) y Valle Inferior (VIRCH) del Río Chubut, siendo la fuente de abastecimiento de...
La estratigrafía cenozoica de Chubut presenta un importante registro de edad miocena que se
extiende en diferentes cuencas sedimentarias desde los Andes Norpatagónicos hasta la plataforma
continental argentina. En esta contribución se llevó a cabo una síntesis del conocimiento actual sobre
los depósitos miocenos desde una perspectiva del análisis d...
The fossil record from Cenozoic sediments provides a great deal of information that has direct bearing on the early assembling of modern Patagonian ecosystems. In this synthesis, we revise selected fossil marine and terrestrial records from the last 66 Ma with the aim of understanding major shifts of Patagonian biotas. From the Paleocene to the mid...
Richly fossiliferous upper Oligocene to lower Miocene Patagoniense marine deposits constitute a conspicuous feature of the sedimentary record of most basins in Patagonia. Patagoniense meaning and subdivisions have been confusing, and correlation and elucidation of factors controlling sedimentation in a region as extensive as Patagonia are still hig...
Lower Miocene outcrops from Patagonia (Gaiman Formation, Burdigalian) may reveal more clues for the yet unknown aspects for this period in the evolution of odontocetes. Here, we present the first toothless platanistoid dolphin from the lower Miocene of Patagonia, Dolgopolis kinchikafiforo, gen. et sp. nov. The specimen includes an incomplete skull,...
Palynomorph assemblages were recovered from the upper levels of the Cretaceous Río Mayer Formation in the Río Lista area, Austral Basin, southern Argentina. Thirty spore and eighteen pollen species, including one angiosperm, are identified, along with fourteen dinoflagellate cysts and six acritarch taxa. The presence of Clavatipollenites spp. and t...
The Neogene was a key time for cetaceans diversification and cosmopolitan distribution, mainly driven by important changes in global climate and ocean productivity. Neogene deposits from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean and North Seas provide a rich cetacean fossil record from this critical evolutionary time. In the Southwester...
Taphonomic studies of fossil cetaceans in Argentina are scarce and they were focused mainly in odontocetes and misticetes from the Gaiman Formation (lower Miocene of Patagonia). These analyses propose different factors (i.e., paleoenvironmental, paleobiological and paleoecological) that controlled the preservation of cetaceans. Prospecting fieldwor...
The Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) in Río Chalía (Austral Basin, Patagonia, Argentina) is a well-exposed fluvial succession with abundant and diverse fossil vertebrates accumulated during the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO). Using facies analysis, characterization of stratigraphic architecture, U–Pb geochronology, and vertebrate palaeontology, we assess...
Sperm whales (Physeteroidea) include today only two genera of morphologically disparate odontocetes: the largest
toothed whale known (Physeter macrocephalus) and small sized forms (Kogia spp.). In contrast, their fossil record indicates
a high diversity for the group during the Miocene, with over 20 species recognized. Miocene marine sediments from...
Key information for regional biostratigraphic, climatic and environmental reconstructions for the Miocene of the southwestern Atlantic margin can be obtained by qualitative and quantitative palynological analysis at the onshore YPF-CH-PV.es-1 borehole (PV borehole) in the Valdés Basin, combined with previously documented organic-walled dinoflagella...
The data presented here are related to the research article "Miocene Atlantic transgressive-regressive events in northeastern and offshore Patagonia: a palynological perspective" (Guler et al. in press). A total of 60 drilled cutting samples from a 580 m-thick subsurface stratigraphic section (YPF.Ch.PV.es-1 borehole) in Península Valdés, Chubut Pr...
The continental early-middle Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) and its fossils in Austral Patagonia represent the best record of South American mammalian faunas prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) and is of particular interest because it is the best preserved high-latitude continental biotic record in the Southern Hemisphere span...
The giant sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and the dwarf (Kogia sima) and pygmy (Kogia breviceps) sperm whales represent the only three extant species of physeteroids. This group has diversified during the Miocene, and the Miocene marine sediments of Patagonia (Argentina) hold one of the most important fossil records of physeteroids. In particu...
The giant sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and the dwarf (Kogia sima) and pygmy (Kogia breviceps) sperm whales represent the only three extant species of physeteroids. This group has diversified during the Miocene, and the Miocene marine sediments of Patagonia (Argentina) hold one of the most important fossil records of physeteroids. In particu...
Fossil‐rich sediments of the Santa Cruz Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, span the initiation of the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO), the most recent period of warm and wet conditions in the Cenozoic. These conditions drove the expansion of tropical and subtropical ecosystems to much higher latitudes, with the fossiliferous Santa Cruz Formation recor...
The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO; ca. 17-14.5 Ma) is the most recent Cenozoic global warming event. It affected ecosystems that were broadly comparable to today's, making it one of our best analogues for ongoing, anthropogenic climate change. Whereas vegetation responses to the MMCO in the northern hemisphere are well documented, southern...
Coprolites are a useful tool to obtain information related to the life history of the producer, trophic interactions, biodiversity, paleoenvironments, and paleoclimate, among other issues. We analyze here a sample of 111 coprolites recovered from levels of the Santa Cruz Formation (lower–middle Miocene, Burdigalian–early Langhian), outcropping in d...
The Santa Cruz Formation is an Early–Middle Miocene terrestrial sedimentary succession widely distributed in southern Patagonia.
Particularly, it is exposed along the southern margin of the Río Santa Cruz valley where the sedimentological and stratigraphical features are described for three localities. From east to west these localities are: Barran...
The Santa Cruz Formation (Early–Middle Miocene) is one of the most widespread sedimentary units of the Argentine Patagonia. This unit contains an abundant and taxonomically diverse fossil vertebrate fauna, especially in mammals. Thus, the paleoecological and paleoenvironmental information derives mainly from the analysis of the vertebrate assemblag...
The Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) records high latitude terrestrial paleoecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere during Burdigalian– early Langhian times (Early–Middle Miocene). Mammalian fossils from Río Santa Cruz (RSC) localities were first collected in the late 19th century, forming the basis for the Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age. New...
The Austral-Magallanes is an oil-producing basin located in southern Argentina and Chile, containing a siliciclastic stratigraphic record ranging from the Late Jurassic to late Cenozoic. This short paper finalize the two special volumes of the Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis dedicated to the basin, and aims to provide a c...
Despite their geodynamic significance, the stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the lower-middle Miocene clastic deposits, genetically related to subduction-driven lithospheric processes at the latitude of the Chile Triple Junction are poorly known. These beds, outcropping along the foothills of the Southern Patagonian Andes in the northwestern ed...
Sperm whales (Physeteroidea) are the basal-most surviving lineage of odontocetes, represented today by just three highly specialized, deep-diving suction feeders. By contrast, extinct sperm whales were relatively diverse, reflecting a major Miocene diversification into various suction feeding and macroraptorial forms. The beginnings of this diversi...
Accurate age-depth models for proxy records are crucial for inferring changes to the environment through space and time, yet traditional methods of constructing these models assume unrealistically small age uncertainties and do not account for many geologic complexities. Here we modify an existing Bayesian age-depth model to foster its application...
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 sedim...
Factors affecting cetacean preservation and distribution in ancient sedimentary successions are not well understood. Actualistic studies have focused on coastal and deep marine examples, and little is known about taphonomic processes occurring within shelf environments. In this paper, we integrate sedimentological, taphonomic and palaeontological d...
The present work documents the stratigraphic distribution of dinoflagellate cysts from the upper part (60–585 m) of the YPF.Ch. PV. es-1 borehole, Península Valdés, Argentina. The assemblages exhibit a relatively moderate to low diversity. Most samples are characterized by frequent to abundant taxa of
the order Gonyaulacales, such as Spiniferites/...
The stratigraphy of the Oligocene-Miocene southern Patagonia marine deposits has been extensively discussed. However, the Monte Observación Member (MOM) was vaguely defined and many aspects related to its boundaries, distribution, lithology and paleoenvironments of deposition remain uncertain. In this paper we present results obtained from the fiel...
The continental early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) is widely distributed in southern Patagonia. It fossil mammals comprise the basis of the
Santacrucian Land Mammal Age. Fossil prospecting of exposures along the southern escarpment of Río Chalía have been neglected until now. They
represent the greatest known aerial exposure and sedimentary t...
En la actualidad, en Argentina no existen antecedentes sobre estudios tafonómicos de cetáceos fósiles. Trabajos de prospección en el NE de Chubut resultaron en el hallazgo de un misticeto preservado en la parte inferior de la Formación Puerto Madryn (Mioceno Tardío) en el área de Punta Buenos Aires, Península Valdés. Éste representa el primer regis...
El Mioceno temprano es uno de los momentos más importantes en la historia evolutiva de los cetáceos, sin embargo esta escasamente documentado en el registro fósil mundial. Dentro de los odontocetos, la superfamilia Platanistoidea (Oligoceno tardío/Mioceno temprano-actualidad) comprende mayormente especies extintas y una sola actual (Platanista gang...
Sedimentologic studies together with preliminary anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) analysis were carried out in a very particular and intriguing Lower Cretaceous depocenter in the northern Austral-Magallanes basin, in order to elucidate its geodynamic setting. Aptian-Albian regressive sequences from the coastal Río Belgrano Formation and...
The early Miocene of Patagonia (Argentina) provides one of the best-known records of odontocetes for an age interval
with scarce fossils. Most of these taxa are historically old and briefly described, which has contributed, in part,
to their controversial taxonomic position. The shark-toothed dolphin Phoberodon arctirostris was described almost
100...
Cetaceanhistory includesthree major adaptive radiations. Thefirst involves the Eocene northern origins of cetaceans. Thesecond involvesthe Neoceti (Odontoceti +Mysticeti), which diversified from latest Eocene to earliest Miocene as the Southern Oceanopened. This radiation is linked to rise of the AntarcticCircumpolar Currentandtoincreased nutrients...
High global temperature and pCO2 characterized the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO; ca. 17-14.5 Ma) and are thought to have promoted highly diverse ecosystems in warm and wet climates at high latitudes. However, only sparse observations inform interpretations of regional climate and biotas outside the northern hemisphere. The Santa Cruz Forma...
The contents of the superfamily Platanistoidea, an early-diverging lineage comprising extinct species and a single extant representative of South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica), remain controversial. We describe here a partial skull and associated tympano-periotic bones identified as a new genus and species, Aondelphis talen gen. et sp....
The most important Cenozoic marine transgression in Patagonia occurred during the late Oligocene–early Miocene when marine waters of Pacific and Atlantic origin flooded most of southern South America including the present Patagonian Andes between ~41° and 47° S. The age, correlation, and tectonic setting of the different marine formations deposited...
Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales) are a key group in understanding baleen whale evolution, because they are the oldest surviving lineage of crown Mysticeti, with a fossil record that dates back ∼20 million years. However, this record is mostly Pliocene and younger, with most of the Miocene history of the clade remaining practically unknown. The...
Supplementary material 1.
Supplementary material 3.
Combined matrix.
Supplementary material 2.
Morphological matrix dataset.
The late Miocene beds of the Puerto Madryn Formation (Provincia del Chubut, Argentina) are formed by shallow marine and estuarine sediments. The latter include several tidal-channel infills well exposed on the cliffy coast of the Peninsula Valdés. The Bahía Punta Fósil and Cerro Olazábal paleochannels are end members of these tidal channels and sho...
This special issue of Geo-Marine Letters presents selected contributions from the 9th International Conference on Tidal Sedimentology held on 17–19 November 2015 in Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The guest editors are the conference organizers Roberto A. Scasso and José I. Cuitiño. Gerardo M. Perillo was the head of the Scien...
The Península Valdés region is situated in an intraplate position of the South American Plate, in the Patagonian foreland close to the Argentine Continental shelf. This region has a complex geotectonic evolution that started more than 400 Ma and involves the conformation of Northern Patagonia as a part of Gondwana during the Paleozoic, the opening...
Two major marine transgressions covered part of Patagonia during the Miocene and both are recorded in the Península Valdés region. The older (early Miocene) is represented by the volumetrically scarce outcrops of the Gaiman Formation, composed by shelf mudstones and fine sandstones. The late Miocene transgression is represented by the Puerto Madryn...
The early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) in southern Patagonia hosts the Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age (SALMA), whose age is known mainly from exposures along the Atlantic coast. Zircon U-Pb ages were obtained from intercalated tuffs from four inland sections of the SCF: 17.36 ± 0.63 Ma for the westernmost Río Bote locality, and 1...
La superfamilia Platanistoidea comprende principalmente familias con representantes extintos (por ejemplo Squalodelphinidae, Waipatiidae, Squalodontidae), y actuales (Platanistidae, con una única especie actual Platanista gangetica), aunque el contenido taxónomico de este grupo aún es controversial. Los Squalodontidae (Oligoceno tardío-Mioceno tard...
The Cretaceous-Cenozoic evolution of the Southern Patagonian Andes is one of the most prominent examples of coupling between subduction processes and climatic, magmatic, deformational, and sedimentary events. Three orogenic and magmatic cycles can be particularly related to processes in the subduction zone (1) Late Cretaceous closure of the Rocas V...
The age and stratigraphic subdivisions for the late Oligocene-Miocene, marine deposits of Patagonia (Patagoniense succession) have been largely debated. Most studies for the Comodoro Rivadavia region were focused on its biostratigraphy and stratigraphic relations with the underlying and overlying mammal-bearing terrestrial strata. We report here th...
Early Miocene shallow marine deposits in the region of Lago Posadas-Meseta Belgrano (Argentina)
represent part of the “Patagoniense” transgression, an Atlantic marine incursion that flooded large part of Patagonia, including the Austral (foreland) Basin (southern Patagonia). These deposits, referred as El Chacay (Argentina) or Guadal (Chile) format...
A new megaflora composed of fossil woods and leaves is described. The bearing sediments overlie the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene), making it one of the youngest fossil megafloras described from southern Patagonia. The fossil woods is carbonized and found as clasts within a conglomerate. It includes a few specimens representing Araucariaceae...
A new megaflora composed of fossil woods and leaves is described. The bearing sediments overlie the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene), making it one of the youngest fossil megafloras described from southern Patagonia. The fossil woods is carbonized and found as clasts within a conglomerate. It includes a few specimens representing Araucariaceae...
La Formación Santa Cruz es una unidad miocena de origen terrestre que aflora extensamente en la Cuenca Austral, dentro de la provincia de Santa Cruz, y parcialmente en Chile. Sus exposiciones se registran desde la región costanera del sudeste de la provincia, entre el Río Gallegos y el Parque Nacional Monte León, hasta la región cordillerana desde...
The Patagonian steppe-a massive rain-shadow on the lee side of the southern Andes-is assumed to have evolved ~15-12 Myr as a consequence of the southern Andean uplift. However, fossil evidence supporting this assumption is limited. Here we quantitatively estimate climatic conditions and plant richness for the interval ~10-6 Myr based on the study a...
