Abstract

The oldest known estuarine bivalve assemblage is documented from the Lower Ordovician (upper Arenig-lower Llanvirn) Alto del Cóndor Formation, which crops out in the Cordillera Oriental of northwestern Argentina. This unit displays most of the diagnostic sedimentary attributes of estuarine environments. Biotic components include low-diversity trace fossils and a peculiar bivalve fauna consisting of the new genera Konduria, Pseudoredonia, and Pucamya, and the new species Redonia condorensis. This constitutes the earliest known occurrence of bivalves in brackish waters, suggesting that the capability of this clade to colonize estuarine environments developed early in their radiation.

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