MIRAMAR. Recently, a team
of researchers announced the identity of the species that left its tracks with
other prehistoric creatures in the Buenos Aires town of Miramar, one of the
most important locations in paleontological matter worldwide.
The fossil footprints of
rodents in South America are scarcely known by paleontologists, since for their
preservation certain environmental characteristics must be given, as well as
their subsequent visualization in paleontological sites
A group of researchers
composed by Cristian Oliva of the Center for the Registration of Archaeological
and Paleontological Heritage with headquarters in the city of La Plata,
Cristian Favier Dubois of the Archaeological and Paleontological Research Area
of the Pampean Quaternary, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of
the Center of the Province of Buenos Aires in Olavarria and its discoverers,
Daniel Boh and Mariano Magnussen of the Mu Semen Municipal Natural Science
Center Punta Miramar, released preliminary studies on some ancient fossilized
footprints, which belonged to a large rodent related to the current capybara,
the largest living rodent on the planet, (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), which
they can grow up to 1.30 meters long and weigh 65 kilos, although in the past,
more voluminous forms existed.
The presentation to the
scientific community of the new materials was made during the VI Archaeological
Seminar and VII Regional Paleontological Conference, that took place in the
city of Miramar in the month of April of this year. It brought together leading
researchers from our country.
"The remains of fossil
carpinchos have already been found in this area in layers of more than three
million years, mainly jaws and skulls, which are preserved in the Municipal
Museum Punta Hermengo of Miramar ", Daniel Boh, head of the institution.
For his part, Mariano
Magnussen of the local museum commented," the footprints of this rodent
were not alone, since they belong to the Punta Hermengo paleontological site,
known worldwide by researchers, where they also recovered the first fossil
footprints attributable to a large saber-toothed tiger, also from Macrauchenia,
an animal similar to a camel with a trunk and a large bird of the family of the
rhea.
Rodent recovered and
identified, belong to the icnospecies Porcellusignum conculcator, of which only
a handful of findings in America are known. This material contributes notably
to the understanding of these rare traces, providing information on their way
of life, ecology of the past, etc.
This site, located near the
urban area and in the tourist sector of the city of Miramar, a shores of the
sea, was in prehistoric times very different. The sea was several kilometers to
the southeast, and this sector was a floodplain, fed by a stream that
disappeared thousands of years ago. Animals of different species approached the
muddy shores, where they left their tracks, which, because they were quickly
covered, have managed to preserve themselves to this day.
In addition, the team of
the Municipal Museum Punta Hermengo of the city, has been working successfully
in the discovery and recovery of paleontological material that appears
permanently. In the same site where the traces of this "capybara or
prehistoric capybara" were found, fossilized skeletal remains of at least
4 extinct gigantic sloths, of the genus Lestodon, which reached about four
meters in length, have been recovered. Hippidion (American horses), toxodontes
(similar to hippos and rhinos), Macrauchenia (similar to a camel, but with a
long trunk), Notiomastodon (South American elephants), glyptodonts (huge
armadillos), rodents, fish and insects, all of them last 100 thousand to 50
thousand years before the present.
It should be noted that
these paleontological marials are protected by the national law 25.743 / 03 and
by municipal ordinance 248/88 as part of the paleontological heritage of the
Argentine Republic and the Municipality of General Alvarado.
New facilities for the
museum.
Due to the large number of
pieces collected, the Municipal Museum Punta Hermen go can not exhibit and
preserve its growing collection, the Municipality of General Alvarado together
with the Azara Foundation are finalizing the details of a new and modern
building for the area of natural sciences, which will revalue the scientific,
cultural, educational level of the institution and it will be a new tourist
attraction for the city. Fuente; https://tech2.org/argentina/they-identify-the-fossilized-footprints-of-a-capybara-that-lived-100-thousand-years-ago-in-miramar/
