Crotovine

Traces of the activities of rodents can often be seen in the presence of “crotovines,” dark-coloured patches near the bottom of the humus horizon, formed from old burrows filled up with black earth from above.

Unit 1. Pale yellowish brown silty clay penetrated by abundant crotovine.

For example, whereas Quintana (1992) proposed Eutatus, Propraopus, or Pampcztherium typum as the probable excavators of a paleocave near Mar del Plata (southern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina), Imbellone and Teruggi (1988) and Imbellone et al. (1990) tentatively attributed some burrows near La Plata (northeastern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) to Eutatus seguini or Pampcltherium typum, and Bergqvist and Maciel (1994) attributed large crotovines (paleoburrows that have been filled in by sediment) in Rio Grande do Sul (southern Brazil) to the pampatheres Pampatherium and Holmesina, and to Propraopus.

Here we describe an unusual fossil assemblage found inside a crotovine from the late Pliocene Chapadmalal 'Formation' (Buenos Aires Province).