Chucal
Chucal is located in the Altiplano (high plateau) of northern Chile at an elevation nearly 4,500 m. As far as we are aware, it is the highest vertebrate fossil locality in the western hemisphere. It is also among the highest vertebrate fossil sites in the world. The area was at a much lower elevation when its fossils were deposited about 18 million years ago, and at that time, the region supported a diverse and abundant mammal fauna of at least 18 different species. Interestingly, some of the mammals present at Chucal belong to groups that were not present in southern South America (Patagonia) at that time. Thus, Chucal is important for documenting what is known as “provinciality,” or the presence of different mammals in different places. For example, mesotheriid notoungulates are common and diverse at Chucal but are unknown in faunas of similar age from southern Chile and Argentina. Similarly, interatheriids (another family of small notoungulates) and ground sloths are common in Patagonian fossil sites but have not yet been recorded at Chucal. By combining information from Chucal with data from other Chilean and Bolivian faunas, we will better understand when and how such provinciality originated and what effects it has had on modern faunas. The ungulates of Chucal were described in 2004, and we tackled the cingulates (armadillos and glyptodonts) in 2007. We published a paper on the chinchillid rodents in 2021 and are now working on the other rodents that have been found at the site.
For more information see:
- Charrier, R., A. Chávez, S. Elgueta, G. Hérail, J.J. Flynn, D.A. Croft, A.R. Wyss and M. García. 2005. Rapid tectonic and paleogeographic evolution associated with the development of the Chucal anticline and the Chucal-Lauca Basin in the Altiplano of Arica, northern Chile. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 19(1):35-54.
- Croft, D.A., J.J. Flynn and A.R. Wyss. 2004. Notoungulata and Litopterna of the early Miocene Chucal Fauna, northern Chile. Fieldiana: Geology (New Series) 50:1-49.
- Croft, D.A., J.J. Flynn, and A.R. Wyss. 2007. A new basal glyptodontid and other Xenarthra of the early Miocene Chucal Fauna, northern Chile. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(4):781-797.
- Croft, D.A., J.J. Flynn, A.R. Wyss, R. Charrier, and F. Anaya. 2021. New chinchillid rodents (Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha) from northern Chile and Bolivia fill a 17-million-year gap in the pan-chinchilline fossil record. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 28(4):1205–1236.
- Flynn, J.J., D.A. Croft, R. Charrier, G. Hérail and A.R. Wyss. 2002. The first Cenozoic mammal fauna from the Chilean Altiplano. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(1):200-206.
