First documentation of Late Paleozoic conodonts from Argentina: Biostratigraphic and paleoclimatic constraints for the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in SW Gondwana

Abstract

We present the first discovery of Late Paleozoic conodonts in Argentina, marking thesouthernmost occurrence of this fossil group in the dominantly cold, high latitudes of Gondwana.Recovered from the siliciclastic Río del Peñón (RDP) Formation at the Rincón Blancosection in the northern Precordillera, La Rioja Province, the fossil assemblage includes Neognathoduscolombiensis and Neognathodus “pre-colombiensis,” precisely indicating the earlyMoscovian (late Atokan in North America) N. colombiensis Zone. Furthermore, the conodontfauna establishes a crucial temporal constraint for the brachiopod Tivertonia jachalensis–Streptorhynchus inaequiornatus (TS) Zone, which is a widely employed biostratigraphic unitin southern South America. The warm-water affinity of Neognathodus is in accordance withthe record of typical paleoequatorial faunal elements in the TS Zone in several central westernArgentinian basins, thus reinforcing the idea of a climatic amelioration in the southernlatitudes of Gondwana during the early Moscovian.