New chondrichthyans from Bartonian-Priabonian levels of Río de Las Minas and Sierra Dorotea, Magallanes Basin, Chilean Patagonia

Abstract

Here we studied new fossil chondrichthyans from two localities, Río de Las Minas, and Sierra Dorotea, both in the Magallanes Region, southernmost Chile. In Río de Las Minas, the upper section of the Priabonian Loreto Formation have yielded material referable to the taxa Megascyliorhinus sp., Pristiophorus sp., Rhinoptera sp., and Callorhinchus sp. In Sierra Dorotea, middle-to-late Eocene levels of the Río Turbio Formation have provided teeth referable to the taxa Striatolamia macrota (Agassiz), Palaeohypotodus rutoti (Winkler), Squalus aff. weltoni Long, Carcharias sp., Paraorthacodus sp., Rhinoptera sp., and indeterminate Myliobatids. These new records show the presence of common chondrichtyan diversity along most of the Magallanes Basin. The new record of Paraorthacodus sp. and P. rutoti, support the extension of their respective biochrons in the Magallanes Basin and likely in the southeastern Pacific.