Paleogeographic implication of a titanosaur eggshell from the Neogene of the Entre Ríos Province, Argentina

Abstract

The Lower Member of the Ituzaingó Formation (LMIF), fluvial in origin and assigned to the Upper Miocene, contains a conglomerate level known as “Mesopotamiense” or “Conglomerado osífero” that has yielded a rich fauna of vertebrates. The aim of this contribution is to describe a titanosaurian dinosaur eggshell fragment recovered from the LMIF at the locality of Toma Vieja (western Entre Ríos Province), discussing its paleogeographic history and implications. Fragments of eggshells referred to Titanosauria are frequent from litostratigraphic units of the Upper Cretaceous of western Uruguay (e.g., Guichón, Mercedes, and Queguay Formations). Besides, a fragment of eggshell recovered from the Puerto Yeruá Formation (Upper Cretaceous) at eastern Entre Ríos Province was described. Geophysical data from the Entre Ríos Province allow to propose the presence of a Lower Cretaceous field of extensional tectonic stresses that generated structural lineaments with a E-W and ENE-WSW trend. This ancient penetrative Cretaceous tectonic framework would have exerted control on the shape of the basin and sediment flow patterns and subsequent sedimentation, by promoting the generation of accommodation space over the late Paleogene and the Neogene. The phenomenon would have conditioned the deposition of the Fray Bentos Formation, the subsequent marine Paraná Formation, and the sedimentation of the LMIF, with source materials coming from the east. Thus, it is hypothesized that the fragment of eggshell of Titanosauria would come from the eastern area of the basin (western Uruguay) as a consequence of the existence of a paleohydric system with predominantly E-W and ENE-WSW directions. This late Neogene system would have been controlled by inherited Cretaceous structural lineaments with orientations similar to those that also govern the current fluvial systems of western Uruguay, developed on the Mesozoic substrate.