Abstract

OTTONE, Eduardo G. Jesuits and fossils at the Cuenca del Plata. Ser. correl. geol. [online]. 2008, n.24, pp.9-21. ISSN 1666-9479.

Petrified wood, shells and bones referred by the Jesuits Ovalle, del Techo, Sepp, Lozano, Guevara, Sánchez Labrador, Dobrizhoffer, Falkner and Juárez in several texts written during the XVII and XVIII centuries constitute one of the first records of plant and animal fossils at the Cuenca del Plata. Most Jesuits considered the Paraná and Uruguay rivers as capable of transforming wood, but also bone, into stone, and thus, the petrifactions commonly unearthed from their sandy banks as formed by the water. Besides, while Guevara related to a race of giants, extinct nowadays, the great bones commonly found near the Carcarañá river mouth, Falkner described a cuirass of glyptodont and Sánchez Labrador explained the presence of marine invertebrates on the outskirts of Buenos Aires by invoking the scriptural Flood.

Keywords : Jesuits; Fossils; Cuenca del Plata.

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