Electron Spin Resonance Dating of Toxodon Tooth from Upper Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating was applied to date a sample of fossil tooth found in Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, Brazil. This region is characterized by abundant fossil records of Pleistocene–Holocene South American megafauna belonging to different faunistic moments related to climate changes during the quaternary. As the number of fossils dated is not too large, the dating of materials from this region will provide important information to better understand the events associated with the presence and extinction of these species. The equivalent dose (D_e) was determined using single exponential fitting resulting in (24 ± 1)Gy. The D_e was converted to age using ROSY ESR Dating program and the concentration of radioisotopes present in the sample and soil determined through neutron activation analysis. The ages cover the range of 25–34 ka. This information is important to contextualize other findings in the region from different sites and to help obtain better information about the climate changes in this region.