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Ammonite Biostratigraphy and Correlations in the Upper Jurassic-Lowermost Cretaceous La Caja Formation of North-Central Mexico (Sierra De Catorce, San Luis Potosí)

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Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods

Abstract

Ammonite stratigraphy of the Upper Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous La Caja Formation is analyzed in two sections near Rancho Los Alamitos in the Sierra de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Numerous ammonites and other megainvertebrates, mainly bivalves, were collected bed by bed and complemented with data on rare calpionellids. The data obtained on ammonites provide the most precise biostratigraphy known from the region. The El Pastor Member is dated as late Early Kimmeridgian to Middle Tithonian and at least part of the El Verde Member as (late Early to Middle) Berriasian. The dominant Kimmeridgian ammonites are Idoceras and haploceratids. As common in north-central Mexico, Tithonian ammonoids occur in stratigraphically discontinuous assemblages, some of these in condensed deposits related to transgressions. According to the record of ammonites and calpionellids, the Kimmeridgian, Tithonian, and Berriasian are incomplete in the sections studied. The record of Kossmatia in the upper Lower to Middle Tithonian is confirmed.

Calpionellid correlations with the European standard, however, strongly indicate that the Mexican Kossmatia, Substeueroceras and Durangites, ranged into the Middle Berriasian. Among poorly preserved calpionellids, large Tintinnopsella carpathica, T. longa, and Remaniella sp. were recorded together with rare Calpionella alpina; no Crassicollaria were found.

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Olóriz, F., Villaseñor, A.B., Gonzalez-Arreola, C., Westermann, G.E.G. (1999). Ammonite Biostratigraphy and Correlations in the Upper Jurassic-Lowermost Cretaceous La Caja Formation of North-Central Mexico (Sierra De Catorce, San Luis Potosí). In: Olóriz, F., Rodríguez-Tovar, F.J. (eds) Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4837-9_31

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