Quaternary Marine Mollusk Associations of the Last Interglacials in North Patagonia (Argentina): Paleoecology and Paleoclimates

Abstract

Deposits of different Quaternary marine transgressions are largely exposed in the Argentine north Patagonian littoral (39°15′S–41°02′S), south of the Buenos Aires and north of Río Negro provinces. The malacological associations of 84 sites were studied. Among them, 31 belong to Pleistocene deposits of the interglacials ≥ MIS 9, MIS 7, MIS 5e, 29 to Holocene deposits of the interglacial MIS 1, and 24 sites of modern beaches. These sites yielded 7385 fossils among valves and shells, of 78 species (42 bivalves and 36 gastropods), including 11 micromolluskan species. The record of the bivalves Crassostrea rhizophorae in the south of the Buenos Aires Province, and Anomalocardia brasiliana (both currently inhabiting lower latitudes), and very likely the gastropod Tegula atra (inhabiting today the Pacific Ocean) in the north of Río Negro Province, suggests that interglacials MIS 7, MIS 5e and MIS 1 were warmer than today. However, the associations determined for the studied interglacials have not changed in their composition, but in abundance of species, except for the latitudinal shifts of the three mentioned species, and the presence of cold to temperate water taxa since the MIS 1 in the ecotonal area of the north of Río Negro Province. Changes in the associations of northern Patagonia during the Quaternary derived from global changes (sea surface temperature, salinity, etc.), and the existence of habitat heterogeneity in each of the areas, that enabled the co-existence of different bivalve and gastropod species of the local benthic marine malacofauna.