Keyword: Quebrada Quereo Formation

The Late Pleistocene mammal record of Quebrada Quereo Formation: biogeography, biostratigraphy and paleoclimatic inferences. This paper describes the fossil fauna recovered from the Quebrada Quereo Formation (Late Pleistocene – Holocene) located at Choapa Province, IV Region, Chile. In this formation, two cultural levels (Quereo I y II) with Pleistocenic fauna were detected. The remains identified include living species (Dusycion cf. D. culpaeus), as well as extinguished fauna (Palaeolama sp., Antifer sp., Equus [Amerhippus] sp., cf. Panthera onca, Milodontidae, and Gomphoteriidae). For each of these, we present taxonomic, paleogeographic and paleoclimatic remarks. The possible presence of P. onca in Quebrada Quereo Formation constitutes the first evidence of a locally extinct felid outside the Patagonic area of Chile. The identified faunal assemblage presents differences with those recorded in Argentinean territory; which is explained by the presence of the Cordillera de los Andes. The Chilean paleofaunistic assemblages, therefore, are related to those found in Bolivia and the Andean occidental sector in general, although some enrichment with taxa from the oriental side of the range is not discarded.