New avian fossil records from Molino Doll locality (Entre Ríos): a first insight of the bird diversity during the Early Holocene in northeastern Argentina

Abstract

We described a new avian assemblage from the Early Holocene of northeastern Argentina (Entre Ríos Province). The identified diversity includes Rhea cf. R. americana (Rheidae), Pardirallus cf. P. sanguinolentus (Rallidae), cf. Ixobrychus (Ardeidae) and indeterminate species of Charadriidae, Thraupidae, Icteridae, and Passerellidae. This assemblage constitutes an important addition to knowledge of late Quaternary (Early Holocene) birds from northeastern Argentina. The paleofaunistic and taphonomical data obtained in this study align with previous inferences from the area, suggesting the presence of grasslands, open forest, and water courses and/or ponds with floating vegetation. The recovered fauna suggests that southwestern Entre Ríos Province provided favourable conditions for the development of several taxa with different ecological requirements during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (12,000–8000 yrs. BP). As it has been reported from other Quaternary sites in Argentina, fossil birds are useful for build paleoenvironmental reconstructions.