Introduction

This volume was conceived during the Symposium “El Estadio Isotópico 3 en la Argentina y el sur de América del Sur: 60.000 a 25.000 años atrás” (The Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) in Argentina and southern South America: 60,000 to 25,000 years ago) held in June 2013, in La Plata, Argentina. The main purpose of this meeting was to promote the interaction of the leading scientists in various disciplines of the Geological and Paleontological Sciences of the Late Cenozoic of South America in order to update the existing knowledge on the core issues cited in the title of the symposium (e.g., geology, geomorphology, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, palynology, paleomagnetism, paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic studies, etc). This was the first time ever that these topics related to MIS 3 were publicly discussed in Argentina. The Quaternary geological history is characterized by cyclical climatic changes (glacial and intervals). These cyclical changes generated periodic reorganizations of the landscape and the environmental system. MIS 3 was an interstadial stage, a relatively warmer climatic period which developed roughly between 60 ka B.P. and 25 cal. ka B.P. Several very cold periods (Heinrich events) developed during MIS 3, and several paleoclimatic moments with relatively warmer conditions (Dansgaard-Oeschger events) took place in between. We wish that this first attempt to compile data about MIS 3 in the southern part of South America will be appreciated by our colleagues around the world who are interested in this fascinating period of our climatic history, that the available evidence will be thoroughly analyzed and discussed, and that our data and interpretations will be compared with the existing information emerging from the rest of the planet, and particularly, from other regions of the Southern Hemisphere.