Ischigualasto Provincial Park
| Ischigualasto / Talampaya Natural Parks | |
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| Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List | |
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| Country | Argentina |
| Type | Natural |
| Criteria | viii |
| Reference | 966 |
| UNESCO region | Latin America and the Caribbean |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 2000 (24th Session) |
 Location of Ischigualasto Provincial Park in Argentina.
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Ischigualasto Provincial Park is a natural park located in the north-east of the province of San Juan, north-western Argentina (30°S 68°W / 30°S 68°W), limiting to the north with the Talampaya National Park, in La Rioja. Both areas belong to the same geological formation, the Ischigualasto Formation, (sometimes Ischigualasto-Talampaya Formation).
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Description [edit]
It has an area of 603.7 km2 (233 sq mi), most of them within the Valle Fértil Department, with a minor part in the Jachal Department of San Juan, at an altitude of about 1,300 m (4,265 ft) above mean sea level. The park is part of the western border of the Pampean Hills, and it features typical desert vegetation (bushes, cacti and some trees) which covers between 10 and 20% of the area. The climate is very dry, with rainfall mostly during the summer, and temperature extremes (minimum -10 °C, maximum 45 °C). There is a constant southern wind with a speed of 20-40 km/h after noon and until the evening, sometimes accompanied by an extremely strong zonda wind.
Paleontology [edit]
The Ischigualasto Formation contains Late Triassic (Carnian) deposits (231.4 -225.9 million years before the present[1]), with some of the oldest known dinosaur remains, which are the world's first with regards to quality, number and importance. It is the only place in the world where nearly all of the Triassic is represented in an undisturbed sequence of rock deposits. This allows for the study of the transition between dinosaurs and ancient mammals; research is ongoing.
The arid badlands around the formation are known as Valle de la Luna ("Valley of the Moon") due to their rugged, otherworldly appearance. In the Carnian this area was a volcanically active floodplain dominated by rivers and had a strongly seasonal rainfall. Petrified tree trunks of Protojuniperoxylon ischigualastianus more than 40 m (131 ft) tall attest to a rich vegetation at that time. Fossil ferns and horsetails have also been found.
Rhynchosaurs and cynodonts (especially rhynchosaur Hyperodapedon and cynodont Exaeretodon[1]) are by far the predominant findings among the tetrapod fossils in the park. According to Rogers et al. (1993) dinosaur specimens comprise only 6% of the total tetrapod sample;[2] subsequent discoveries increased this number to approximately 11% of all findings.[1] Carnivorous dinosaurs are the most common terrestrial carnivores of the Ischigualasto Formation, with herrerasaurids comprising 72% of all recovered terrestrial carnivores.[1] Dinosaurs of Ischigualasto Formation include early samples of the two major lineages of dinosaurs (ornithischians and saurischians). The carnivorous archosaur Herrerasaurus is the most numerous of these dinosaur fossils. Another important putative dinosaur with primitive characteristics is Eoraptor lunensis, found in Ischigualasto in the early 1990s.
Dinosaurs [edit]
An undescribed theropod is present in San Juan Province.[3]
Color key
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Notes Uncertain or tentative data are in small text; |
| Dinosaurs of the Ischigualasto Formation | ||||||
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| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
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C. novasi |
San Juan Province[4] |
Cancha de Bochas Member[4] |
Partial skeleton including limb bones, pelvic bones and caudal vertebrae.[4] |
Basal sauropodomorph closely related to Saturnalia.[4] |
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E. murphi |
San Juan Province[1] |
Valle de la Luna Member |
A nearly complete skeleton and another partial skeleton. |
Basal theropod |
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E. lunensis[3] |
Two nearly complete skeletons.[5] |
Basal saurischian, possibly a theropod[4] or sauropodomorph[1] |
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F. ischigualastensis[3] |
Jr. synonym of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis. |
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H. ischigualastensis[3] |
"Various partial skeletons, including a complete skull and mandible."[5] |
A herrerasaurid, basal saurischian[4] or theropod[1]. Includes Ischisaurus cattoi, Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis, and cf. Staurikosaurus sp.[3] |
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I. cattoi[3] |
Jr. synonym of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis. |
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P. protos[6] |
San Juan Province.[3] |
One of the basalmost known genera of sauropodomorphs.[6][4][7] |
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P. mertii[3] |
the La Rioja Province.[3] |
"Fragmentary skull and skeleton."[8] |
One of the earliest known ornithischians. |
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S. gordilloi |
San Juan Province[9] |
Cancha de Bochas Member[9] |
An incomplete skeleton.[9] |
A herrerasaurid. |
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cf. Staurikosaurus |
Indeterminate |
Remains previously referred to "cf. Staurikosaurus" were later determined to belong to Herrerasaurus.[3] |
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Other archosauromorphs [edit]
| Non-dinosaurian archosauromorphs of the Ischigualasto Formation[4] | ||||||
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| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
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A. scagliai |
An aetosaur. |
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C. ischigualastensis[10] |
San Juan Province[10] |
Cancha de Bochas Member[10] |
An articulated incomplete skeleton[10] |
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H. mariensis, H. sanjuanensis |
A rhynchosaur. |
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P. barrionuevoi |
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S. galilei |
A rauisuchian. |
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S. longicervix |
A shuvosaurid. |
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T. romeri |
A putative basal crocodylomorph. |
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An unnamed lagerpetid[11] |
Unnamed |
San Juan Province[11] |
Femur[11] |
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An unnamed silesaurid[11] |
Unnamed |
San Juan Province[11] |
Ilium[11] |
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Synapsids [edit]
| Synapsids of the Ischigualasto Formation[4] | ||||||
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| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
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C. sanjuanensis |
A cynodont. |
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D. elegans |
San Juan Province |
Cancha de Bochas Member |
Partial skull, represented by the snout and the orbital region, with partially preserved upper dentition. |
A cynodont. |
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E. lunensis |
A cynodont. |
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E. frenguellii |
A cynodont. |
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I. sudamericanus |
A cynodont. |
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I. jenseni |
A dicynodont. |
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cf. Probainognathus |
Indeterminate |
A cynodont. |
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Other tetrapods [edit]
| Other tetrapods of the Ischigualasto Formation[4] | ||||||
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| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
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P. ischigualastensis |
A temnospondyl. |
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P. bellmanni |
A temnospondyl. |
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See also [edit]
Footnotes [edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g Ricardo N. Martinez, Paul C. Sereno, Oscar A. Alcober, Carina E. Colombi, Paul R. Renne, Isabel P. Montañez and Brian S. Currie (2011). "A Basal Dinosaur from the Dawn of the Dinosaur Era in Southwestern Pangaea". Science 331 (6014): 206–210. doi:10.1126/science.1198467. PMID 21233386.
- ^ Raymond R. Rogers, Carl C. Swisher III, Paul C. Sereno, Alfredo M. Monetta, Catherine A. Forster and Ricardo N. Martínez (1993). "The Ischigualasto Tetrapod Assemblage (Late Triassic, Argentina) and 40Ar/39Ar Dating of Dinosaur Origins". Science 260 (5109): 794–797. doi:10.1126/science.260.5109.794. PMID 17746113.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Triassic, South America)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 527–528. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ezcurra M. D. (2010). "A new early dinosaur (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Argentina: a reassessment of dinosaur origin and phylogeny". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 8: 371–425. doi:10.1080/14772019.2010.484650.
- ^ a b "Table 2.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 26.
- ^ a b c Martinez RN, Alcober OA (2009). "A Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Triassic, Carnian) and the Early Evolution of Sauropodomorpha". PLoS ONE 4 (2): e4397. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004397. PMC 2635939. PMID 19209223.
- ^ Cabreira, Sergio F.; Cesar L. Schultz, Jonathas S. Bittencourt, Marina B. Soares, Daniel C. Fortier, Lúcio R. Silva and Max C. Langer (2011). "New stem-sauropodomorph (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Triassic of Brazil". Naturwissenschaften 98 (12): 1035–1040. doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0858-0.
- ^ "Table 14.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 326.
- ^ a b c d Alcober, Oscar A.; and Martinez, Ricardo N. (2010). "A new herrerasaurid (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Upper Triassic Ischigualasto Formation of northwestern Argentina". ZooKeys 63: 55–81. doi:10.3897/zookeys.63.550. PMC 3088398. PMID 21594020.
- ^ a b c d e Trotteyn, M.J.; Martínez, R.N.; and Alcober, O.A. (2012). "A new proterochampsid Chanaresuchus ischigualastensis (Diapsida, Archosauriformes) in the early Late Triassic Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (2): 485–489. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.645975.
- ^ a b c d e f Max C. Langer, Sterling J. Nesbitt, Jonathas S. Bittencourt and Randall B. Irmis (in press). "Non-dinosaurian Dinosauromorpha". In S.J. Nesbitt, J.B. Desojo and R.B. Irmis (eds). Anatomy, phylogeny and palaeobiology of early archosaurs and their kin. The Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/SP379.9.
- ^ Ricardo N. Martínez, Eliana Fernandez and Oscar A. Alcober (2013). "A new non-mammaliaform eucynodont from the Carnian-Norian Ischigualasto Formation, Northwestern Argentina". Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 16 (1): 61–76. doi:10.4072/rbp.2013.1.05.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Parque Provincial de Ischigualasto |
References [edit]
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre - Description of the Ischigualasto-Talampaya site.
- Berkeley University - Localities of the Triassic: Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina.
- Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
- Spanish language references
- Parque Provincial Ischigualasto.
- ArgentinaXplora.com - Valle de la Luna - Ischigualasto.
- Ischigualasto.com - La importancia científica de Ischigualasto.
- Ente Autárquico Ischigualasto - Official website of the park's administration.
- CuyoNoticias digital newspaper.
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