Mario Pino

Universidad Austral de Chile and FEPPO Foundation

The extinction of megaherbivores (weighing over 1000 kg) at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary caused drastic changes at multiple trophic levels. However, few examples of Pleistocene insect extinction have been reported in the literature. Here we describe a new extinct dung beetle species, Scybalophagus brellenthinae sp. nov., based on fossil remain...

Monte Verde II in southern Chile is one of the most important, and debated, sites for understanding of the early peopling of the Americas. The authors present 43 radiocarbon measurements based on cores of sediments that overlie the archaeological deposits adjacent to the site. Statistical analysis of these dates narrows the deposition of the earlie...

En 1995, D. Lavallée publie Promesse d’Amérique. La Préhistoire de l’Amérique du Sud, une monographie de référence encore à ce jour sous bien des aspects. Plus de vingt-cinq ans après, aucune autre publication de langue française n’a tenté de reproduire de projet aussi ambitieux portant sur l’ensemble de la Préhistoire de l’Amérique du Sud. Loin de...

Corrections are made to Stuart Fiedel’s (2022) recent errors and misrepresentations related to the late Pleistocene sites of Monte Verde and Huaca Prieta and to South American Fishtail projectile points.

Stable isotopes are a powerful tool for reconstructing the past. However, environmental factors not previously considered can lead to misinterpretations. Our study presents a novel analysis of the feeding behavior of the megafauna that inhabited the Pilauco ecosystem in south-central Chile during the last glacial termination. We analyzed a suite of...

In the Pilauco site (40°34′11″ S, 73°06′17″ W; 13,570 ± 70–12,540 ± 90 14C year BP), a previous geochemical trace analysis suggested that the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex is the most likely source for obsidian and dacitic glass artifacts at Pilauco. It was hypothesized that the glassy rocks were probably collected from a pebble beach depo...

New findings of fossil remains of one of the Pilauco dung beetles, Onthophagus pilauco Tello, Verdú, Rossini and Zunino, 2021 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), extinct at the base of the Younger Dryas chronozone at the end of the Pleistocene (~12,800 years before the present) in northern Patagonia, Chile, are described and illustrated. Recent analyses of...

El sitio Pilauco, en la Patagonia Noroccidental chilena, presenta evidencias de ocupación humana en Sudamérica ca. 16500 cal yr BP. En 2019, el primer artefacto de basalto (12B-P120-220319) fue registrado en un nivel datado en 17300 cal yr BP. Se trata de una pieza excepcional manufacturada sobre un hemiguijarro, hallada en asociación estratigráfic...

The Pilauco site, in northwestern Chilean Patagonia, presents evidence of human occupation in South America ca. 16,500 cal yr BP. This article presents the techno-functional analysis of a unifacial artifact belonging to a 17,300 cal yr BP level, found in association with five other lithic pieces. Artifacts of this type have long been considered exp...

Two hundred obsidian clasts obtained from Laguna Blanca, Atacama Desert (Seelenfreund et al. 2010) were selected; 100 rounded clasts without fractures and 100 rounded clasts that were intentionally fractured. These were divided equally into groups of 50 clasts, for experimental transport using two motorized devices (modified concrete mixer and a bi...

Current archaeological paradigm proposes that the first peopling of the Americas does not exceed the Last Glacial Maximum period. In this context, the acceptance of the anthropogenic character of the earliest stone artefacts generally rests on the presence of projectile points considered no more as typocentric but as typognomonic, since it allows,...

The effects of a sudden rainfall (40 mm d-1) event on the surface waters covering muddy tidal flats were studied during April 2016 at the estuarine Cruces River wetland in south-central Chile (~40ºS). The study area included flooded vestigial tree trunks, which is evidence of coseismic subsidence associated with the 1960 Valdivia earthquake as a so...

At Chaihuín marsh, south of Valdivia (39°56’ S/73°33’ W), a sand bed was deposited during the 1960 earthquake. The aim of this study is to map the 1960 tsunami deposit in detail and to associate earlier sand layers with past tsunamis. Geologic field mapping by means of stratigraphic sections constructed using 111 cores in the marsh revealed the exi...

The recently reported discovery of cultural evidence at Chiquihuite Cave (Zacatecas, Mexico), produced by humans of at least 26,500 calendar years ago, is a major advance in research into early human occupations in the Americas. Thirteen of the 239 lithic artifacts recovered from the SC-C stratigraphic component, dated during and before the Last Gl...

This comment is a brief response to the opinion statement made by Politis and Prates in this issue of PaleoAmerica. Some of their errors and misunderstandings are corrected. We maintain that the psephites from Monte Verde-I and Chinchihuapi-I are allochthonous and cultural in origin.

In a review of the early archaeology of South America, Politis and Prates challenge certain data presented for some early sites. In the process, they misrepresent information presented by original investigators, including us for the Monte Verde and Chinchihuapi sites in Chile. We respond to their critique and correct several errors made by these au...

The sedimentary intertidal surfaces (tidal flats from here on) in coastal wetlands are globally recognized by their biological diversity and available ecosystem services. In Chile, these environments are mainly distributed between 30 and 41°S and associated with micro-tidal estuaries. The estuarine Cruces River Wetland (CRW) was formed by tectonic...

In 1960 CE, Lake Cucao on Chiloé Island in south central Chile was inundated by the tsunami of the Great Chilean Earthquake (Mw 9.5). The area of what is now the lake basin has been submerged since the end of the rapid postglacial sea-level rise and has recorded tsunami inundations in its sediment record since then. This study reconstructs the tsun...

In CE 1960, Lake Cucao on Chiloé Island in south central Chile, was inundated by the tsunami of the Great Chilean Earthquake (Mw 9.5). The area of what is now the lake basin is submerged since the end of the rapid postglacial sea level rise and may have recorded tsunami inundations in its sedimentary record since then. Sub-bottom profiles and side...

The Pilauco site is located in north-western Chilean Patagonia, Region de Los Lagos (40°34′12″S, 73°06′12″W). The stratigraphy of the site comprises of two distinct Pleistocene units. The lower unit corresponds to the sequence San Pablo of MIS5e age and consists of clastic and volcanoclastic sediments (PB-1 to PB-5). The upper unit includes the str...

The study of coprophilous fungal spores associated with herbivorous faeces has been used to determine, among others, the presence, abundance and decrease of the megafauna populations on land at the end of the Pleistocene. Sporormiella sp. is the most abundant spore species in pollen samples, and it is exclusively restricted to faeces from domestic...

Investigations of the first South American settlements have revealed great environmental diversity, to which the first humans adapted as they colonized the continent. In this chapter we focus mainly on the description and interpretation of a set of expeditive lithics, from the sites Pilauco and Los Notros, knapped in local and exotic rocks ascribed...

The findings published on this book span eleven years of active field research investigations at the Pilauco site and the first results of the neighboring site Los Notros. However, most of the archaeological and paleontological findings presented in this volume have been obtained from Pilauco, because the site Los Notros is yet at an early stage of...

The Pilauco Site, located at 159 Río Cachapoal Street, Villa Los Notros, Osorno, was discovered by chance in 1986. We began the research of Pilauco in November 2007. This chapter describes the main human and scientific events that have allowed the development of the geological, paleontological, archeological, and astrophysical research.

The site Los Notros, located just 60 m west of the site Pilauco in Osorno (Chile), was discovered in 2008, with excavations beginning in April 2016. The geology of Los Notros is similar to that of the Pilauco site where strata LN-1 and LN-2 are equivalent to layers PB-7 and PB-8 from Pilauco. However, Los Notros includes an additional stratum (LN-3...

The artifacts and features recovered during survey and excavations at parlamento site are described. It was discovered that few Spanish artifacts are present at parlamento sites south of the formal frontier at the Bio Bio River, and more are present in sites north of the river, which is to be expected since the Spanish controlled areas to the north...

We present the first record of the family Histeridae in late Pleistocene deposits in Chilean Northwestern Patagonia, based on fossil of a single elytron, registered at the Pilauco archaeo-paleontological site in Los Lagos Chilean region. We describe the fossil remain and discuss the paleoecology of the fossil related to the climate, fauna, and earl...

The extant elephants are only a small fraction of the diverse order of proboscideans that once roamed the planet, whereas the extinct gomphotheres represent the largest and most diverse of these enigmatic groups that survived into the Quaternary. However, their relationship to the living elephantids and the other extinct elephantiformes, such as th...

This volume combines 10 years of accomplished research at the Pilauco site. The studies are focused on a variety of scientific areas including geological, sedimentological, geomorphological and paleobotanical topics, as well as paleontology of vertebrata and invertebrata, micropaleontology, archaeology, biochemistry, taxonomy, taphonomy, astrophysi...

The present study describes the discovery of a singular sedimentary structure corresponding to an ichnite that was excavated at the paleo-archaeological site Pilauco (Osorno, Chile). The trace fossil is associated with megafauna bones, plant material and unifacial lithic tools. Here we present a detailed analysis of the Pilauco ichnite and associat...

Supporting information on the associated materia (lithics and fossils), taxonomic comparisons and additional experimental data. (DOCX)

Artifact. 14AA-P33-180213 made on aphanitic basalt. Flake with active distal and lateral links. (TIF)

Unconformity between coarse gravel (PB6) and sandy peat (base of PB7), grid AC10, the red arrow indicates the north. The stratigraphic context is the same in the grid AD14. (TIFF)

Artifact 14AD-P173B-220111 made on aphanitic basalt. Primary flake with a distal point. (TIF)

Artifact 15AD-P126-2501 made on aphanitic basalt by tertiary reduction, with distal and lateral retouching. Probably a scraper. (TIF)

Artifact 17AA-P056-050213, made on dacitic glass. Primary flake with active distal and right lateral. Scraper. (TIF)

Artifact 17AA-P81-120115, made on aphanitic basalt by tertiary reduction, with retouching. Scraper. (TIF)

Image analysis of the anterior haft of the fossil ichnite. Keys were placed to facilitate the identification of features and their respective locations. A) X-Ray image showing the absence of clast (C) imbedded into the sediment lump (SL). Clasts are observed elsewhere under the ichnite (depth is not known), as well as 4 screws (s) used to build the...

Flake 15AC-P185-27111 made on dacitic glass, bifacial knapping. (TIF)

Spatial distribution of the human footprint (ichnite), lithic material and gomphotere bones in grids 14AD, 14AC, 15AD and 15AC, in the northwestern side of Pilauco site. Numbers refers to the lithics presented in S1 Table. (TIF)

Schematic view of the experimental setting. Trackmakers walked on the rehidrated fossilbed sediment. (TIF)

Schematic representation of the sediment textural composition. Notice that trackbed samples have a slightly higher mud and gravel content than the rest. Infilling sediment has a lower gravel content. (TIF)

Petrographic and spatial position of artifacts, flakes and debitage in grids 14AC, 14AD, 15AD and 15AC in the northwestern side of Pilauco site. Numbers referred at S2 Fig. (DOCX)

This paper presents new excavation data on the Chinchihuapi I (CH-I) locality within the Monte Verde site complex, located along Chinchihuapi Creek in the cool, temperate Valdivian rain forest of south-central Chile. The 2017 and 2018 archaeological excavations carried out in this open-air locality reveal further that CH-I is an intermittently occu...

The Younger Dryas (YD) impact hypothesis posits that fragments of a large, disintegrating asteroid/comet struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia ~12,800 years ago. Multiple airbursts/impacts produced the YD boundary layer (YDB), depositing peak concentrations of platinum, high-temperature spherules, meltglass, and nanodiamonds...

Subaqueous landslides are common features at active and passive ocean margins, in fjords and lakes. They can develop on very gentle slope gradients (<2°) and the presence of sandy tephra layers seems to facilitate the development of translational failure. Despite numerous investigations, it remains elusive how different slope preconditioning factor...

In this study we used a multidisciplinary approach, coupling morphological, geological, geochemical, and statistical analyses to investigate the provenance of rhyodacitic and dacitic glass knapped at the Pilauco site (40°34′11” S, 73°06′17” W; 13,570 ± 70–12,540 ± 90 14C year BP) in northwestern Chilean Patagonia. A morphotechnological analysis was...

The Ñadi soils (ÑS) is a local name for soils occurring at southern Chile (38° to 43° S) covering around 4250 km2 hectares. Derived from volcanic materials, have discontinuous iron-cemented layers (the placic horizon) which favour waterlogging during the winter. The studies of iron-cemented layers are predominant in USA and Taiwan, but we provide a...

Significance The multiproxy approach represents a novel methodology and a unique opportunity to obtain a more detailed view of ancient resource use. Our multiproxy study, carried out on gomphotheres from Chile, widens potential occupied habitats to closed-canopy forests. This habitat variability supports the hypothesis that the diet of gomphotheres...

The forestry industry is known for negatively affecting stream quality when proper management is not applied. Nutrient retention by soils and streamside vegetation buffer strips could attenuate these impacts. We tested the response of different streams to the nutrients and sediments released by a) fertilization and b) clear-cutting of Eucalyptus gl...

Late Pleistocene deposits around Valdivia, locally known as Cancagua, have been subject of contrasting interpretations, from glacial to interglacial sediments. Opposing views emerge from focusing on upstream or coastal sedimentary controls, within a zone were these potentially overlap through a full glacial cycle. Here we present the first detailed...

Historical and paleoseismic records in south-central Chile indicate that giant earthquakes on the subduction megathrust – such as in AD1960 (Mw9.5) – reoccur on average every ∼300yr. Based on geodetic calculations of the interseismic moment accumulation since AD1960, it was postulated that the area already has the potential for a Mw8earthquake. How...

Stable isotope analyses have been performed on the bioapatite (δ¹³C; δ¹⁸O) and collagen (δ¹³C; δ¹⁵N) of four late Pleistocene South American megafaunal taxa (Notiomastodon platensis, Equus andium, cf. Hemiauchenia paradoxa and Xenarthra indet.) to evaluate paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental conditions as well as paleoecological features of this t...

This chapter focuses on the reconstructing the Holocene paleoenvironmental history of the Chicama valley and coastal system, which has provided diverse natural resources for the Preceramic cultures at Huaca Prieta and Paredones (fig. 5.1). Here we present the results of a geological investigation of sediment cores, outcrops, and surface morphology...

A new assemblage of fossil beetles of Upper Pleistocene age, dated between 15,754 and 14,697 cal yr BP, is described and interpreted based on cluster analysis. In this study, we present an analysis on the taxonomic composition, and the paleoenvironmental implication of the fossil beetle assemblage in the archaeo- paleontological site of Pilauco in...

Simple pebble tools, ephemeral cultural features, and the remains of maritime and terrestrial foods are present in undisturbed Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits underneath a large human-made mound at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. Radiocarbon ages indicate an intermittent human presence dated between...

We present an exceptionally long and continuous coastal lacustrine record of ∼5500 years from Lake Huelde on the west coast of Chiloé Island in south central Chile. The study area is located within the rupture zone of the giant 1960 CE Great Chilean Earthquake (MW 9.5). The subsequent earthquake-induced tsunami inundated Lake Huelde and deposited m...

Sítio do Meio, discovered in the 1990s, showed a sedimentary sequence clearly composed of two sets of deposits separated by a zone of large rockfall from the massive collapse of the shelter’s overhang. The bottom set, slightly more than 60 cm thick, was trapped between the bedrock (upon which it rested) and the lower part of the roof fall (reaching...

Even though Patagonia is ideally located to study climate of the southern mid-latitudes, many questions on the late Quaternary climate evolution remain unresolved. The timing of maximum glacier extent is still uncertain in vast areas, and the postglacial evolution of the Southern Westerly Wind Belt (SWWB) remains highly debated. Here, we study the...

The images for Figs Figs77 and and88 have been incorrectly swapped. Please view the correct Figs Figs77 and and88 here. Fig 7 Serpentine pebble tool from Unit 17, MV-I, showing bifacially knapped and retouched edge. Serpentine is a raw material available in the coastal cordillera west of Monte Verde. Fig 8 Basalt wedge showing seven facets on o...

Questions surrounding the chronology, place, and character of the initial human colonization of the Americas are a long-standing focus of debate. Interdisciplinary debate continues over the timing of entry, the rapidity and direction of dispersion, the variety of human responses to diverse habitats, the criteria for evaluating the validity of early...

The region of the Siete Lagos and Lago Villarrica differs from the other lakes in the Region de Los Lagos, since it is squeezed in between the Cordillera de Los Andes and the horst and graben structures of the locally easterly expanded Cordillera de La Costa. The absence of the large plains of the central valley prevented the glacier lobes from fre...

Lands in south-central Chile, long thought to have been marginal until the Spanish conquest, are here shown to have been developing complex societies between at least AD 1000 and 1500. Part of the motor was provided by coastland cultivation on raised platforms, here identified and surveyed for the first time. The authors date the field systems and...

Turbidite records along ocean margins and in lake basins are increasingly used as paleoseismic proxies. However, the slope remobilization processes that formed the earthquake-related turbidity currents are poorly understood and, therefore, it is difficult to assess the consistency of turbidite paleoseismic records. We analyzed the sedimentary impri...

The southern pudu (Pudu puda) is one of the smallest living deer of the world. It inhabits the temperate rainforest of Chile and Argentina, where it is considered vulnerable due to decreasing populations. To improve the existing information concerning its feeding ecology, we performed morphometric measurements on skulls and jaws (n = 22), and obser...