The vertebrate fossil record of the Pampean Region of Argentina occupies an important place in South American vertebrate paleontology. An abundance of localities has long been the main basis for constructing the chronostratigraphical/geochronological scale for the late Neogene–Quaternary of South America, as well as for understanding major patterns of vertebrate evolution, including the Great American Biotic Interchange. However, few independently-derived dates are available for constraining this record. In this contribution, we present new 40Ar/39Ar dates on escorias (likely the product of meteoric impacts) from the Argentinean Atlantic coast and statistically-based biochronological analyses that help to calibrate Late Miocene–Pliocene Pampean faunal successions. For the type areas of the Montehermosan and Chapadmalalan Ages/Stages, our results delimit their age ranges to 4.7–3.7 Ma and ca. 3.74–3.04 Ma, respectively. Additionally, from Buenos Aires Province, dates of 5.17 Ma and 4.33 Ma were recovered for “Huayquerian” and Montehermosan faunas. This information helps to better calibrate important first appearances of allochthonous taxa in South America, including one of the oldest records for procyonids (7.24–5.95 Ma), cricetids (6.95–5.46 Ma), and tayassuids (> 3.74 Ma, oldest high-confidence record). These results also constrain to ca. 3 Ma the last appearances of the autochthonous sparassodonts, as well as terror birds of large/middle body size in South America. South American faunal turnover during the late Neogene, including Late Pliocene extinctions, is interpreted as a consequence of knock-on effects from global climatic changes and initiation of the icehouse climate regime.

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Fossil vertebrates, especially mammals, of the Neogene-Quaternary of Central Argentina were fundamental to the construction of time and rock-time scales and the knowledge of the biotic evolution of southern South America. The poverty of fossiliferous localities constrained with radiometric and/or paleomagnetic data heavily complicated the correlation of different faunas and their temporal allocation. The Cerro Azul Formation (Argentina) constitutes a suitable example of this situation but also enlarged because its fossils have been collected from scattered and isolated small outcrops whose chronological ordering was based on the "stage of evolution" of some rodents. We present here new dates for the fauna/locality of Telén (La Pampa Province) plus extensive biochronological analyses covering 16 fossiliferous localities referred to Cerro Azul Formation. Two dates from an "escoria" sample gave 7.09 Ma for Telén assemblage, an age in accordance with that obtained from an independent faunal analysis. Faunal ordination and age obtained with regression analyses identify a succession of faunas/localities that cover the time range between 8-5.33 Ma. The older assemblages (e.g., Cerro Bota) appear to be transitional between Chasicoan and "Huayquerian" faunas. The first records of procyonids and cricetid rodents, two North American lineages, are not synchronic (7 and 5.7 Ma, respectively). Our results show important temporal overlapping among the proposed successive rodent "biozones". The use of the "stage of evolution" in the analyses does not improve the results, suggesting that its application without independent chronological/ biostratigraphical constraints is not appropriate.