Pilauco is a

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...

and

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located in the city of Osorno in

Southern Chile Southern Chile is an informal geographic term for any place south of the capital city, Santiago, or south of Biobío River, the mouth of which is Concepción, about {{convert, 200, mi, km, sigfig=1, order=flip south of Santiago. Generally cities ...

.Navarro-Harris, X., Pino, M.; Guzmán-Marín, P. Lira, M. P. Labarca, R., Corgne, A. (2019). The procurement and use of knappable glassy volcanic raw material, Upper Pleistocene Pilauco site, Chilean Northwestern Patagonia''.'' Geoarchaeology 1–21, DOI: 10.1002/gea.21736 The site contains both human made lithic artifacts and

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...

remains–including

gomphothere Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America during ...

s. All the horizons containing megafauna and evidence of human activity date to the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. The calibrated radiocarbon dates indicate there was human activity in the site between 16,400 and -12,800 cal years B.P. The site is claimed to contain evidence for the

Younger Dryas impact hypothesis The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) or Clovis comet hypothesis is a speculative attempt to explain the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) as an alternative to the long standing and widely accepted cause due to a significant reduction or shut ...

. This evidence include sediment layers with

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

and pollen assemblages both indicating major disturbances as well as rare metallic

spherule A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...

s, and a Pt. Au and Pd peak anomaly originating from claimed to be derivative of

airburst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

s or

impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Impac ...

s. Most of the stone artifacts found in Pilauco are made of volcanic rock such as

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

rhyodacite Rhyodacite is a volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of those plutonic rocks that are intermediate in composition between monzogranite and granodiorite. Rhyodacites form from rapid ...

and

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex immediately east in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. Yet these rocks were imported by humans to the site as nearby rivers have not transported it.

Paleontology

In a 2007-2008 paleontological investigation 648 complete and fractured bones, 37 teeth, 11 coprolites, 348 wood pieces, 126 seeds, 28 skin and hair fragments were found. Further, 71

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

samples were collected for analysis.

References

Archaeological cultures of South America Pre-Columbian cultures Archaeological sites in Chile Geography of Los Lagos Region Former populated places in Chile Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas Pleistocene paleontological sites of South America Paleontology in Chile {{SouthAm-archaeology-stub

Paleontology

See also

References