Bioerosive traces in a Pleistocene Anatid bone from Uruguay

Abstract

We report the first avian bone collected in the Late Pleistocene Dolores Formation, which crops out near Colonia city. The fossil was identified as a femur belonging to an Anatidae that represents the second Anseriform from Uruguay. Two bioerosive traces found on this fossil consist of borings of different sizes and depths were probably occasioned by larvae insect. These traces might have been produced during a brief period of subaerial exposure, in a continental paleoenvironment with dry episodes.