Pilauco is a paleontological and archaeological site located in the city of Osorno where fossils of bones of a Gomphothere, extinct mammal of the family of the Proboscideans related to the Mammoth and modern elephants were found. The Gomphotheres were part of the megafauna that inhabited South America during the late Pleistocene, in a period ranging from about 2.58 million years to about 11,600 years ago.
The paleontological site is located at Río Cachapoal 159 Street, Los Notros Village in the sector of Pilauco on the banks of the Damas River in the city of Osorno, in Los Lagos Region.
In February 1986 an excavation carried out by the company Fourcade, in charge of the construction of Los Notros Village, found fossilized remains such as a molar, a rib and vertebra of a Gomphotere. These were sent to the National Museum of Natural History of Santiago for study. Years later they were sent back to the city of Osorno where they are in permanent exhibition in the Municipal Historical Museum.
Since 2007, new excavations have been carried out on the site led by Mario Pino, a geologist at the Austral University of Chile, who have discovered artefacts of over 13,000 years old, making Pilauco one of the oldest archaeological sites in Chile and South America. At the end of the field work, 684 whole and fractured bones were recovered, 37 teeth, 11 coprolites (fossilized feces), 15 parts of coleoptera, 348 pieces of wood, 126 seeds and 28 fragments of skin and hairs.
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