Pisco Formation

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.

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	Images	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]
	R. ramirezi
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]
	cf. Phalacrocorax sp.

Fish

Bony fish

Rays

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

Sharks

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	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]
	C. hubbelli
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]
	O. megalodon	The largest of the megatoothed sharks (and of all fishes)

Mammals

Cetaceans

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Acrophyseter	A. deinodon	A small raptorial physeteroid		[19][28]
	A. robustus
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]
	B. mazeasi
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]
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]
	O. peruvianus
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	Images	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	Images	Notes
Thalassocnus	T. antiquus	a semi-aquatic marine sloth		[4][17] [19][27]
	T. carolomartini
	T. littoralis
	T. natans

Mollusks

Bivalves

Polychaetes

Gastropods

Reptiles

Laventan

Laventan correlations in South America

Formation	Honda	Honda	Aisol	Cura-Mallín	Pisco	Ipururo	Pebas	Capadare	Urumaco	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

• Bahía Inglesa Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Chile
• Castilletes Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of the Cocinetas Basin, Colombia
• Cerro Ballena, contemporaneous fossil site of the Bahía Inglesa Formation of Chile
• Coquimbo Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Chile
• Collón Curá Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Patagonia, Argentina
• Honda Group, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Colombia
• Navidad Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Chile
• Pebas Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of the Amazon Basin
• Urumaco, contemporaneous fossil site of the Falcón Basin, Venezuela

Bibliography

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pisco Formation.

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