The presence of Plio-Pleistocene palaeolama sp. (artiodactyla: camelidae) on the southern coast of Peru

Abstract

We report the oldest record of the genus Palaeolama in Peru; its constitutes one of the oldest records for the genus in South America. The shape and size of the fossil material is comparable to South American forms P. (Hemiauchenia) paradoxa and the smallest forms of P. (Palaeolama) weddellii. The bones were found within unnamed littoral marine deposits near Atiquipa, on the south coast of Peru. The occurrence of the extinct bivalve mollusk, Chlamys vidali, at the base of the section and coquinas of exclusively extant mollusks in the highest marine terrace capping the section indicates an age of about two million years. This age is slightly older or equal to the oldest records of P. (Palaeolama) in North America. The present report confirms that the Lamini were no strangers to Andean ecosystems prior to the Holocene.