In 1986, she discovered a stretch of land near Pehuen Co containing 12,000-year-old fossilized footprints of at least 22 distinct species, including those of the extinct sloth Megatherium and Glyptodonts.
[2][3] Manera spent much of her career as a professor of paleontology in the Department of Geology of the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahía Blanca.
Following a storm in October 1986, she and her family discovered a three-kilometre stretch of land east of Pehuen Co with a sedimentary rock platform near the beach containing 12,000-year-old fossilized footprints of at least 22 distinct species, including large mammals such as the extinct sloth Megatherium[1][4] as well as Macrauchenia, mastodons, and bears.
[5] She led a project with students from the Universidad Nacional del Sur to create molds and replicas of the fossilized footprints.
[9] Through Law Nº 13.394, the site was declared the Pehuen Co-Monte Hermoso Provincial Geological, Paleontological and Archaeological Reserve.