Pisco Formation

Geologic formation in Peru

Pisco Formation
Stratigraphic range: Mid Miocene-Early Pleistocene (Colloncuran-Uquian) ~15–2 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Lithology and sediments of the Pisco Formation across its allomembers
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Pisco Basin
Overlies	Chilcatay & Caballas Formations
Thickness	640 m (2,100 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Tuffaceous sandstone, diatomaceous siltstone
Other	Conglomerate, dolomite
Location
Coordinates	class=notpageimage\| Outcrops of the formation in Peru

The Pisco Formation is a geologic formation located in Peru, on the southern coastal desert of Ica and Arequipa. The approximately 640 metres (2,100 ft) thick formation was deposited in the Pisco Basin, spanning an age from the Middle Miocene up to the Early Pleistocene, roughly from 15 to 2 Ma. The tuffaceous sandstones, diatomaceous siltstones, conglomerates and dolomites were deposited in a lagoonal to near-shore environment, in bays similar to other Pacific South American formations as the Bahía Inglesa and Coquimbo Formations of Chile.

Several specialists consider the Pisco Formation one of the most important Lagerstätten,^[1]^[2] based on the large amount of exceptionally preserved marine fossils, including sharks (most notably megalodon), penguins, whales, dolphins, birds, marine crocodiles and aquatic giant sloths.

Famous fossils found in these layers include the giant raptorial sperm whale Livyatan,^[3] the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus,^[4] the sperm whale Acrophyseter, and the walrus-like dolphin Odobenocetops.^[5]

Description

The Pisco Formation of the Pisco Basin consists of tuffaceous sandstones, diatomaceous yellow to gray siltstones and a basal conglomerate.^[6] The formation is deposited from Pisco in the north to Yauca in the south. The northern portion is known as the Ocucaje Area and the southern part as the Sacaco Area.^[7] The total thickness of the formation is estimated at 640 metres (2,100 ft).^[8] The formation unconformably overlies the Chilcatay and Caballas Formations.

Paleobiota of the Pisco Formation

The Pisco Formation has provided a rich resource of marine fauna, including marine mammals like cetaceans and seals, large fishes, reptiles, and penguins.^[9] It is also one of the richest sites in the world for fossil cetaceans, with close to 500 examples being found in the formation.^[10]

The oldest fossils of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus (T. antiquus) come from the Aguada de Lomas horizon of the Pisco Formation and were dated at roughly 7 Ma. The youngest specimen (T. carolomartini) was found in the Sacaco horizon and dated to approximately 3 Ma.^[11] Thalassocnus was preyed upon by the probable apex predators of the environment, Livyatan and megalodon.^[12]^[13] The youngest strata belonging to the formation have been dated at 2 Ma, corresponding to the Early Pleistocene (Uquian). Fossils of the Humboldt penguin were found in these deposits at the Yauca locality.^[14]

Birds

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Spheniscus	S. humbodti	Humboldt penguin	^[14]
	S. megarhampus	Banded penguin	^[14]
	S. muizoni	The oldest banded penguin	^[15]^[16]
	S. urbinai	A larger banded penguin than S. muizoni	^[14]
Ramphastosula	R. aguierrei		^[17]^[18]
Ramphastosula	R. ramirezi		^[17]^[18]
Sula	S. brandi		^[19]^[20]
	S. magna
	S. sulita
Morus	M. peruvianus		^[19]
Perugyps	P. diazi		^[19]
Ciconiidae indet.	Gen. et sp. indet.		^[21]
Fulmarus	Fulmarus sp.		^[17]
Pelagornis	Pelagornis sp.		^[22]^[23]
Pelecanus	Pelecanus sp.		^[24]
Phalacrocorax	P. aff. bougainvillii		^[17]^[25]
Phalacrocorax	cf. Phalacrocorax sp.		^[17]^[25]

Fish

Bony fish

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Alosinae	A. indent	A type of herring	^[9]
Centropomidae	C. aff. Psamoperca	A snook fish	^[9]
Triglidae	T. indent	A type of sea robin	^[9]
Xiphiidae	X. ident	A sword fish	^[9]
Sardinops	S. sp.	A sardine	^[26]

Rays

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Myliobatis	Indeterminate	A species of eagle ray		^[9]

Sharks

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Carcharias	C. taurus	The sand tiger shark	^[17]
Carcharhinus	C. sp. indent	A requiem shark	^[9]
Carcharodon	C. carcharias	The great white shark	^[27]^[17]
Carcharodon	C. hubbelli	The great white shark	^[27]^[17]
Cosmopolitodus	C. hastalis	The broad-toothed mako	^[9]
Hexanchus	H. gigas	A cow shark	^[27]
Isurus	I. oxyrhincus	The shortfin mako	^[22]
Otodus	O. chubutensis		^[9]
Otodus	O. megalodon	The largest of the megatoothed sharks (and of all fishes)	^[9]

Mammals

Cetaceans

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Acrophyseter	A. deinodon	A small raptorial physeteroid	^[19]^[28]
Acrophyseter	A. robustus	A small raptorial physeteroid	^[19]^[28]
Atocetus	A. iquensis	A small toothed whale	^[29]^[30]
Australithax	A. intermedia	A long-snouted porpoise	^[31]
Balaenoptera	B. siberi	A baleen cetacean	^[22]^[32]
Belonodelphis	B. peruanus	An long delphinid	^[22]^[29]^[33]
Brachydelphis	B. jahuayensis	An early delphinid	^[22]^[29]^[34]^[35]
Brachydelphis	B. mazeasi	An early delphinid	^[22]^[29]^[34]^[35]
Brujadelphis	B. ankylorostris	A river delphinid	^[36]
Hemisyntrachelus	H. oligodon	An early form of orca	^[17]
Incakujira	I. anillodefuego	A small baleen cetacean	^[22]^[37]
Incakujira	I. fordycei	A small baleen cetacean	^[22]^[37]
Kogia	K. danomurai	A basal member of the Kogia genus. Small physeteroid	^[38]
Koristocetus	K. pescei	A small sperm whale	^[39]
Livyatan	L. melvillei	An 18-meter long raptorial physeteroid with 36 centimetres (1.18 ft) teeth	^[3]
Lomacetus	L. ginsburgi	A cetacean	^[22]^[40]
Miocaperea	M. pulchra	A cetothere whale	^[41]
Ninoziphius	N. platyrostris	A giant beaked whale	^[17]
Odobenocetops	O. leptodon	A cetacean with dual tusks	^[5]
Odobenocetops	O. peruvianus	A cetacean with dual tusks	^[5]
Piscobalaena	P. nana	A small baleen whale	^[17]^[26]
Piscocetus	P. sacaco	An extinct cetacean	^[27]
Piscolithax	P. aenigmaticus	A porpoise	^[17]^[22]
Pliopontos	P. littoralis	An early delphinid	^[17]
Scaphokogia	S. cochlearis	An extinct pygmy sperm whale	^[22]^[42]

Pinnipeds

Seals

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Acrophoca	A. longirostirus	A large pinniped thought to be the ancestor of the leopard seal	^[17]
Australophoca	A. changorum	A phocidae seal.	^[22]
Hadrokirus	H. martini	A species of true seal	^[17]^[43]
Hydrarctos	H. lomasiensis	An Otariidae seal.	^[17]
Magophoca	M. brevirostris	A monachinae seal.	^[44]
Piscophoca	P. pacifica	A phocidae seal	^[26]

Xenarthrans

Sloths

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Thalassocnus	T. antiquus	a semi-aquatic marine sloth	^[4]^[17] ^[19]^[27]
	T. carolomartini
	T. littoralis
	T. natans

Mollusks

Bivalves

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Dosinia	Indeterminate			^[17]

Polychaetes

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Diplochaetetes	D. mexicanus			^[45]

Gastropods

Taxa	Species	Notes
Acanthina	A. obesa	^[17]
Acanthina	A. triangularis	^[17]
Concholepas	C. kieneri	^[17]
Herminespina	Indeterminate	^[17]

Reptiles

Taxa	Species	Description	Notes
Sacacosuchus	S. cordovai	A gavialid crocodylian	^[46]
Piscogavialis	P. jugaliperforatus	A gryposuchine gavialid crocodylian	^[19]^[26]
Pacifichelys	P. urbinai	A sea turtle	^[12]^[47]
Chelonia	Indeterminate		^[9]
Eusuchia	Indeterminate		^[17]

Correlations

Laventan

Laventan correlations in South America
Formation	Honda	Honda	Aisol	Cura-Mallín	Pisco	Ipururo	Pebas	Capadare	Inés	Paraná	Map
Basin	VSM	Honda	San Rafael	Caldera	Pisco	Ucayali	Amazon	Falcón	Venezuela	Paraná	Pisco Formation (South America)
Country	Colombia	Bolivia	Argentina	Chile	Peru			Venezuela		Argentina
Boreostemma
Hapalops
Miocochilius
Theosodon
Xenastrapotherium
Mylodontidae
Sparassodonta
Primates
Rodents
Birds
Terror birds
Reptiles
megalodon
Flora
Insects
Environments	Fluvial			Fluvio-deltaic		Fluvio-lacustrine		Fluvio-deltaic		Fluvial	Laventan volcanoclastics Laventan fauna Laventan flora
Volcanic	Yes										Laventan volcanoclastics Laventan fauna Laventan flora

References

^ Brand et al., 2004
^ Brand et al., 2011
^ ^a ^b Lambert et al., 2010
^ ^a ^b De Muizon et al., 2003
^ ^a ^b De Muizon & Domning, 2002
^ Báez Gómez, 2006, p.65
^ Stucchi, 2007, p.368
^ Altamirano Sierra, 2013, p.3
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Báez Gómez, 2006, p.66
^ Poma Porras et al., 2009, p.86
^ De Muizon et al., 2004, p.287
^ ^a ^b Parham & Pyenson, 2010, p.231
^ Bianucci et al., 2015, p.543
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Stucchi, 2007, p.370
^ Göhlich, 2007, p.287
^ Stucchi, 2007, p.369
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t Sud Sacaco West at Fossilworks.org
^ Stucchi et al., 2016, p.423
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Sud Sacaco at Fossilworks.org
^ Stucchi et al., 2016, p.419
^ Urbina, M.; Stucchi, M. (2005). "Evidence of a fossil stork (Aves: Ciconiidae) from the Late Miocene of the Pisco Formation, Peru". Bol.Soc.Geol.Peru. 100 (2): 63–66.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Aguada de Loma at Fossilworks.org
^ Chávez et al., 2007
^ Altamirano Sierra, 2013, p.6
^ Yauca at Fossilworks.org
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hueso Blanco at Fossilworks.org
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sacaco at Fossilworks.org
^ Lambert et al., 2008
^ ^a ^b ^c Cerro la Bruja at Fossilworks.org
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.131
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.88
^ Demeré et al., 2005, p.115
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.192
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.82
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.108
^ Lambert et al., 2017
^ Marx & Kohno, 2016, p.5
^ Benites-Palomino, Aldo; Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge; Collareta, Alberto; Ochoa, Diana; Altamirano, Ali; Carré, Matthieu; Laime, Manuel J.; Urbina, Mario; Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo (August 2021). Lautenschlager, Stephan (ed.). "Nasal compartmentalization in Kogiidae (Cetacea, Physeteroidea): insights from a new late Miocene dwarf sperm whale from the Pisco Formation". Papers in Palaeontology. 7 (3): 1507–1524. Bibcode:2021PPal....7.1507B. doi:10.1002/spp2.1351. ISSN 2056-2799. S2CID 234058681.
^ Collareta et al., 2017, p.261
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.27
^ Miocaperea pulchra at Fossilworks.org
^ De Muizon, 1988, p.66
^ Amson & De Muizon, 2014, p.524
^ Dewaele, Leonard & de Muizon, Christian. (2024). A new monachine seal (Monachinae, Phocidae, Mammalia) from the Miocene of Cerro La Bruja (Ica department, Peru). GEODIVERSITAS. 46. 10.5252/geodiversitas2024v46a3.
^ Kočí T, Bosio G, Collareta A, Sanfilippo R, Ekrt B, Urbina M, Malinverno E (2021). "First report on the cirratulid (Annelida, Polychaeta) reefs from the Miocene Chilcatay and Pisco Formations (East Pisco Basin, Peru)". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 107: 103042. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.103042.
^ Salas-Gismondi, R.; Ochoa, D.; Jouve, S.; Romero, P.E.; Cardich, J.; Perez, A.; DeVries, T.; Baby, P.; Urbina, M.; Carré, M. (2022-05-11). "Miocene fossils from the southeastern Pacific shed light on the last radiation of marine crocodylians". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 289 (1974). doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0380. PMC 9091840. PMID 35538785.
^ Cerro Colorado Pisco at Fossilworks.org

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