First record of a warm-water Pliocene shell bed from northern Chile

We recognized a few Pliocene D. ponderosa shell beds in different localities of Mejillones Peninsula [Antofagasta (Chile), 23°S]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case study of Pliocene fossil concentrations formed by a warm-water species so well south (more than 2000 km) of its extant southern biogeographic limit. In this paper we provide taphonomic features of an impressive shell bed largely dominated by this infaunal bivalve that outcrops at Cuenca del Tiburon locality. Moreover, we discuss its mode of formation in the light of particular paleogeographic and environmental conditions allowing the immigration, survival, growth and reproduction of large populations of this tropical species in northern Chile