Pisco Formation
Stratigraphic range:Late Miocene-Early Pliocene (Tortonian-Zanclean)[1] ~9.6–4.5 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	Tuffaceoussandstone,diatomaceoussiltstone
Other	Conglomerate,dolomite
Location
Coordinates	15°42′S74°30′W / 15.7°S 74.5°W /-15.7; -74.5
Approximate paleocoordinates	15°48′S73°48′W / 15.8°S 73.8°W /-15.8; -73.8
Region	Arequipa &Ica Regions
Country	Peru
Extent	From Pisco toYauca
Type section
Named for	Pisco
class=notpageimage| Outcrops of the formation in Peru

ThePisco Formation is a geologic formation located inPeru, on the southern coastal desert ofIca andArequipa. The approximately 640 metres (2,100 ft) thick formation was deposited in thePisco Basin, spanning an age from theLate Miocene up to theEarly Pliocene, roughly from 9.6 to 4.5 Ma. Thetuffaceoussandstones,diatomaceoussiltstones,conglomerates anddolomites were deposited in a lagoonal to near-shoreenvironment, in bays similar to other Pacific South American formations as theBahía Inglesa andCoquimbo Formations of Chile.

Several specialists consider the Pisco Formation one of the most importantLagerstätten,^[2][3] based on the large amount of exceptionally preserved marine fossils, including sharks (most notablymegalodon), penguins, whales, dolphins, birds, marine crocodiles and aquaticgiant sloths.

Famous fossils found in these layers include the giant raptorial sperm whaleLivyatan,^[4] the aquatic slothThalassocnus,^[5] the sperm whaleAcrophyseter, and the walrus-like dolphinOdobenocetops.^[6]

The Pisco Formation of thePisco Basin consists oftuffaceoussandstones,diatomaceous yellow to graysiltstones and a basalconglomerate.^[7] The formation is deposited fromPisco in the north toYauca in the south. The northern portion is known as the Ocucaje Area and the southern part as the Sacaco Area.^[8] The total thickness of the formation is estimated at 640 metres (2,100 ft).^[9] The formationunconformably overlies theChilcatay andCaballas Formations.

The Pisco Formation has provided a rich resource of marine fauna, including marine mammals like cetaceans and seals, large fishes, reptiles, and penguins.^[10] It is also one of the richest sites in the world for fossilcetaceans, with close to 500 examples being found in the formation.^[11]

The oldest fossils of the aquatic slothThalassocnus (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.^[12]Thalassocnus was preyed upon by the probableapex predators of the environment,Livyatan andmegalodon.^[13][14] The youngest strata belonging to the formation have been dated at 2 Ma, corresponding to theEarly Pleistocene (Uquian). Fossils of theHumboldt penguin were found in these deposits at the Yauca locality.^[15]

Taxa	Species	Locality	Materials	Description	Images	Notes
Spheniscus	S. humbodti			Humboldt penguin		[15]
	S. megarhampus			Banded penguin		[15]
	S. muizoni			The oldest banded penguin		[16][17]
	S. urbinai			A larger banded penguin thanS. muizoni		[15]
Ramphastosula	R. aguierrei					[18][19]
	R. ramirezi
Sula	S. brandi					[20][21]
	S. magna
	S. sulita
Morus	M. peruvianus					[20]
Perugyps	P. diazi					[20]
Ciconiidae indet.	Gen. et sp. indet.					[22]
Fulmarus	Fulmarus sp.					[18]
Pelagornis	Pelagornis sp.					[23][24]
Pelecanus	Pelecanus sp.					[25]
Phalacrocorax	P. aff. bougainvillii					[18][26]
	cf.Phalacrocorax sp.

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Myliobatis	Indeterminate	A species ofeagle ray		[10]

Taxa	Species	Description	Images	Notes
Carcharias	C. taurus	Thesand tiger shark		[18]
Carcharhinus	C. sp. indent	Arequiem shark		[10]
Carcharodon	C. carcharias	Thegreat white shark		[28][18]
	C. hubbelli
Cosmopolitodus	C. hastalis	The broad-toothed mako		[10]
Hexanchus	H. gigas	Acow shark		[28]
Isurus	I. oxyrhincus	The shortfin mako		[23]
Otodus	O. chubutensis			[10]
	O. megalodon	The largest of the megatoothed sharks (and of all fishes)

Taxa	Species	Locality	Material	Description	Images	Notes
Acrophyseter	A. deinodon			A small raptorialphyseteroid		[20][29]
	A. robustus
Atocetus	A. iquensis			A smalltoothed whale		[30][31]
Australithax	A. intermedia			A long-snoutedporpoise		[32]
Balaenoptera	B. siberi			A baleen cetacean		[23][33]
Belonodelphis	B. peruanus			A long delphinid		[23][30][34]
Brachydelphis	B. jahuayensis			An early delphinid		[23][30][35][36]
	B. mazeasi
Brujadelphis	B. ankylorostris			A river delphinid		[37]
Hemisyntrachelus	H. oligodon			An early form oforca		[18]
Incakujira	I. anillodefuego			A small baleen cetacean		[23][38]
	I. fordycei
Kogia	K. danomurai			A basal member of theKogia genus. Small physeteroid		[39]
Koristocetus	K. pescei			A small sperm whale		[40]
Livyatan	L. melvillei			An 18-meter long raptorialphyseteroid with 36 centimetres (1.18 ft) teeth		[4]
Lomacetus	L. ginsburgi			A cetacean		[23][41]
Mamaziphius	M. reyesi			An earlybeaked whale.		[42]
Miocaperea	M. pulchra			Acetothere whale		[43]
Ninoziphius	N. platyrostris			Agiant beaked whale		[18]
Odobenocetops	O. leptodon			A cetacean with dual tusks		[6]
	O. peruvianus
Piscobalaena	P. nana			A small baleen whale		[18][27]
Piscocetus	P. sacaco			An extinct cetacean		[28]
Piscolithax	P. aenigmaticus			A porpoise		[18][23]
Pliopontos	P. littoralis			An early delphinid		[18]
Scaphokogia	S. cochlearis			An extinctpygmy sperm whale		[23][44]

Seals

Taxa	Species	Locality	Material	Description	Images	Notes
Acrophoca	A. longirostirus			A largepinniped thought to be the ancestor of the leopard seal		[18]
Australophoca	A. changorum			Aphocidae seal.		[23]
Hadrokirus	H. martini			A species of true seal		[18][45]
Hydrarctos	H. lomasiensis			AnOtariidae seal.		[18]
Magophoca	M. brevirostris			Amonachinae seal.		[46]
Piscophoca	P. pacifica			Aphocidae seal		[27]

Sloths

Taxa	Species	Locality	Materials	Description	Images	Notes
Thalassocnus	T. antiquus			a semi-aquatic marine sloth		[5][18] [20][28]
	T. carolomartini
	T. littoralis
	T. natans

Laventan correlations inSouth 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 theCocinetas Basin, Colombia
• Cerro Ballena, contemporaneous fossil site of theBahía 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 theAmazon Basin
• Urumaco, contemporaneous fossil site of theFalcón Basin, Venezuela

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toPisco Formation.

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• R. Esperante, L. Brand, K. E. Nick, O. Poma, and M. Urbina. 2008. Exceptional occurrence of fossil baleen in shallow marine sediments of the Neogene Pisco Formation, Southern Peru. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 257:344-360
• A. Gioncada, A. Collareta, K. Gariboldi, O. Lambert, C. Di Clema, E. Bonaccorsi, M. Urbina and G. Bianucci. 2016. Inside baleen: Exceptional microstructure preservation in a late Miocene whale skeleton from Peru. Geology
• C. S. Gutstein, M. A. Cozzuol, A. O. Vargas, M. E. Suarez, C. L. Schultz and D. Rubilar-Rogers. 2009. Patterns of skull variation of Brachydelphis (Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the Neogene of the Southeastern Pacific. Journal of Mammalogy 90(2):504-519
• O. Lambert, A. Collareta, W. Landini, K. Post, B. Ramanssamy, C. Di Celma, M. Urbina and G. Bianucci. 2015. No deep diving: evidence of predation on epipelagic fish for a stem beaked whale from the Late Miocene of Peru. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282:20151530
• J. Machare, T. DeVries, and E. Fourtanier. 1988. Oligo-Miocene transgression along the Pacific margin of South America: new paleontological and geological evidence from the Pisco basin (Peru). Géodyynamique 3(1–2):25-37
• R. Marocco and C. de Muizon. 1988. Los vertebrados del Neogeno de La Costa Sur del Perú: Ambiente sedimentario y condiciones de fosilización. Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines 17(2):105-117
• C. de Muizon and D. P. Domning. 1985. The first records of fossil sirenians in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Bulletin du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Section C: Sciences de la Terre: Paléontologie, Géologie, Minéralogie, Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 7(3):189-213
• C. de Muizon. 1983.Pliopontos littoralis un nouveau Platanistidae Cetacea du Pliocene de la cote peruvienne. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Paris Série II (296)1101-1104
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• M. Urbina and M. Stucchi. 2005. Los cormoranes (Aves: Phalacrocoracidae) del Mio-Plioceno de la Formacion Pisco, Peru. Boletin de la Sociedad Geologica del Peru 99:41-49
• R. M. Varas Malca and A. Valenzuela Toro. 2011. A basal monachine seal from the middle Miocene of the Pisco Formation, Peru. Ameghiniana 48(4):R216-R217
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• T. J. DeVries. 2003.Acanthina Fischer von Waldheim, 1807 (Gastropoda: Muricidae), an ocenebrine genus endemic to South America. The Veliger 46(4):332-350
• T. J. DeVries. 1997. NeogeneFicus (Mesogastropoda: Ficidae) from the Pisco Basin (Peru). Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica de Perú 86:11-18

• Pisco Formation
• Geologic formations of Peru
• Miocene Series of South America
• Pliocene Series of South America
• Pleistocene Peru
• Neogene Peru
• Uquian
• Chapadmalalan
• Montehermosan
• Huayquerian
• Chasicoan
• Mayoan
• Laventan
• Colloncuran
• Sandstone formations
• Siltstone formations
• Conglomerate formations
• Dolomite formations
• Tuff formations
• Lagoonal deposits
• Tidal deposits
• Shallow marine deposits
• Paleontology in Peru
• Geography of the Department of Arequipa
• Geography of the Department of Ica

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