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Ichnology, sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Yacoraite Formation (Maastrichtian-Danian), northwestern argentina View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Cristian Pereyra on 28 August 2019.
Cristian A. Pereyra 1,2, María P. Sal Moyano3, Mariano Verde4 y Enrique Fucks2,5
1
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, La Plata, 2Centro de Estudios Integrales
de la Dinámica Exógena (CEIDE-UNLP), 3Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y
Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
(CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Funes, 3350, 7600, Mar del
Plata, Mar del Plata, Argentina, 4Universidad de la República de Uruguay, 5 IAMRA
The record of burrows of Neohelice granulata Dana 1851 from the Quaternary of Buenos
Aires, Argentina
Burrows of the brachyuran crab Neohelice granulata Dana 1851, endemic of the warm-temperate
mallacological province are scarcely known and recorded as fossils (only for Mar Chiquita, Pehuen-
Có and possibly Cerro de La Gloria), however, their morphological characteristics as well as their
sedimentological and ecological effects are largely known for present day environments,
constituting typical “cangrejal” ecosystems at Buenos Aires province, de La Plata river, as for
Patagonia and South of Brazil, in bays, lagoons and salt marshes at the intertidal. The objectives of
this work is to acknowledge and characterize the sites with known record of biogenic structures of
the species N. granulata and to describe at least briefly the morphology of its burrows and other
measurable parameters such as density and sedimentological and paleoenvironmental constraints,
which makes it similar and adds information referring to what is known in the present day on its
bioturbator behavior. Fossil exoesqueletal record provein from Mar Chiquita, Pehuen-Có, Pereyra
Iraola Park and Uruguay (Playa Pascual), commonly represented by scarce body remains although
with some degree of articulation between the carapace and some of its pereiopodos, highlighting the
case of Pereyra Iraola Park due to its exceptional preservation in carbonate concretions, all
belonging to the middle Holocene (maximum transgressive). In the localities where burrows are not
preserved, its exoesqueletal record suggests their indirect presence as to its obligate construction.
The morphology of the main section of the biogenic structure might be “Y” or “I”, with a variable
longitude depending on substrate type, while its opening exceeds the diameter seen in other
ichnospecies of the ichnogenus Psilonichnus, as well as its particular distribution in the intertidal,
allowing more comparisons due to the better knowledge of these structures compared with that of
other species of extant crabs of which no fossil record exists. Thus, the presence of a chamber close
to the aperture or on its middle section result of the copulatory or postcopulatory behavior differs
from the rest of the burrow morphologically and in its ecological function, suggesting a new type of
ichnite, unknown to date.