An exceptionally rich bird assemblage from Late Pleistocene of the ancient Tagua Tagua Lake, central Chile, and its paleoenvironmental implications
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The ancient Tagua Tagua Lake, located in the Mediterranean ecosystem of central Chile, is one of the most relevant localities for understanding the environmental and faunal changes that occurred during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in South America due to its chronologically well-controlled, continuous, and undisturbed sedimentary sequence coupled with an extraordinarily diverse vertebrate record. In this work, we describe the bird assemblage from the archaeo-palaeontological site of Taguatagua 3, which yielded evidence of human–faunal interaction around 12,500 cal BP. The 17 taxa identified are grouped in the following orders: Tinamiformes (Nothoprocta perdicaria), Anseriformes (Anas cf. A. georgica, Anas cf. A. flavirostris, Lophonetta cf. L. specularioides, Anas sp. and the first record of Oxyura for the Late Pleistocene of Chile), Podicipediformes (Podiceps major, Podiceps cf. P. occipitalis, Rollandia cf. R. rolland, and other small indeterminate podicipedids), Gruiformes (Fulica armillata, Fulica cf. F. rufifrons, Fulica cf. F. leucoptera, and Pardirallus sanguinolentus), Columbiformes (Patagioenas cf. P. araucana and Zenaida cf. Z. auriculata), and Passeriformes (Diuca cf. D. diuca and Curaeus cf. C. curaeus, as well as some indeterminate passerines). These findings, coupled with the record of the neighbouring Taguatagua 1 site, place the ancient Tagua Tagua Lake as the richest avian locality of the Pleistocene—Holocene transition in Chile. In line with this sedimentological context, the most abundant taxa are from freshwater environments, such as Anseriformes, Podicipediformes, and Gruiformes. However, terrestrial birds from arboreal (Columbiformes and Passeriformes) and open grassland environments (Tinamiformes) were also identified, suggesting a mosaic of landscapes around the lake in a cold-influenced, humid temperate climate during the Pleistocene—Holocene transition in central Chile.
Source: Historical Biology
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Fundación Palarq
OpenAlex ID: W7160348992