An accumulation of bone remains of two Liolaemus species (Iguanidae) in an Holocene archaeological site of the Argentine Puna

Abstract

An accumulation of iguanian bone remains was found inside a rodent burrow in an Holocene archaeological site of the Argentine southern Puna. Characters of the preserved bones suggest that a minimum of two species of the Liolaemus genus is represented. One of them is undoubtedly attributed to the montanus group, probably L. poecilochromus or L. andinus. The finding of Liolaemus bone remains in the Argentine Puna Region represents the first record of this genus in an archaeological site of South America and suggests that specimens of at least two Liolaemus species exploited the same refuge simultaneously, including both adult and juvenile individuals.Reptile remains found in archaeological sites are relevant for understanding the relationship between indigenous groups and their environment as well as to interpret the taphonomy of microvertebrate fossil assemblages. The findings of small iguanids in South American archaeological sites are still scarce. For Argentina, Van Devender (1977) describes an isolated dentary belonging to the iguanid Leiosaurus belli (Gruta del Indio cave, eastern slopes of the Andes), whereas Mengoni Goñalons and Silveira (1976) mention the presence of indeterminate iguanids in Cueva de las Manos, Patagonian region.Alero 12 is a rockshelter located at 3980 m asl in the Puna Region, Tinogasta Department, Catamarca Province, Argentina (68 • 07 W and 26 • 55 S). This archaeological site stands out by the presence of an unusual abundance of lizard bone remains (99.2% of the total microfaunal assemblage) found in an excavated surface of 4 m 2 (Kligmann et al., 1999). The only radiocarbon date available for the site (590 ± 45 BP, LP-880) comes from the same stratigraphic

Basic morphological data of native Czech Emys orbicularis revealed by subfossil finds

“…Besides information about former distribution, species communities, and range fluctuations (e.g., Adler 1968aAdler , b, 1970Rhodin & Largy 1984;Rhodin 1992Rhodin , 1995Pritchard 1994;Mosseri-Marlio 1998;Albino & Kligmann 2007;Sommer et al 2007), morphological traits of native, but already extinct, species can be investigated. The size similarity of subfossil Czech E. orbicularis and representatives of the extant population from the Hungarian Low-Subfossil Emys orbicularis morphology 797 land supports that E. orbicularis immigrated to what is now southern Moravia and Bohemia from the adjacent south-eastern lowlands, as hypothesized, among others, by Farkas et al (1998), Fritz et al (2007), and Sommer et al (2007).…”

Microvertebrados del Holoceno de sitios arqueológicos en el sur de Mendoza (República Argentina): aspectos tafonómicos y sus implicancias en la subsistencia humana

“…Por su parte, las especies del género Pristidactylus exhiben dientes tricúspides en los premaxilares, los dientes presentan una gran cúspide central, con cúspides secundarias muy reducidas y separadas por surcos poco evidentes. En cambio, en especies del género Phymaturus existen mas de dos cúspides accesorias, las cuales se encuentran muy expandidas anteroposteriormente y separadas de la cúspide central por surcos bien delimitados, profundos y extensos (Cei, 1986;Etheridge, 1995;Estes y Williams, 1998;Frost et al, 2001;Albino, 2005;Albino y Kligmann, 2007).…”

Herpetofaunal Remains from Khonkho Wankane, an Urban and Ceremonial Centre in the Southern Lake Titicaca Altiplano: Unique Behavioural Correlates to Osseous Taphonomy

“…If the desired product was amphibian meat, a potentially more productive resource apparently was not harvested despite clear use of other aquatic resources. Human exploitation of herpetofauna for food is known from the greater Andean region (Albino & Kligmann, ; Cooke, ), such as the hunting and consumption of lizards on the north coast of Peru, which has persisted into recent times (Holmberg, ). The use of long, portable barriers to direct the movement of these prey toward human hunters makes their harvest efficient.…”