La Matilde Formation
La Matilde Formation is a Jurassic geological formation in the Austral Basin of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It is dated to the Middle to Late Jurassic. From the Bathonian age (164.7 to 167.7 million years ago) to the Kimmeridgian age (150.8 to 155.7 million years ago) at the latest.[1][2][3]
| La Matilde Formation Stratigraphic range: Bathonian-Kimmeridgian ~167–151 Ma | |
|---|---|
| Type | Geological formation |
| Underlies | San Julián Formation |
| Overlies | Chon Aike Formation |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Claystone, sandstone, siltstone |
| Other | Coal beds, conglomerate, tuff |
| Location | |
| Location | Patagonia |
| Coordinates | 47.6°S 68.1°W |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 44.2°S 27.3°W |
| Region | Santa Cruz Province |
| Country |  Argentina |
| Extent | Austral Basin |
  La Matilde Formation (Argentina) | |
The area was once part of the subtropical and temperate regions of the southern supercontinent Gondwana in the Mesozoic era, a more or less continuous landmass consisting of what is now modern South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea.[4][5]
Description
La Matilde consists primarily of sedimentary rocks. It includes claystone, coal beds, conglomerates, siltstones, sandstones, and volcanic tuff. La Matilde overlies but sometimes intersperses with the Middle Jurassic Chon Aike Formation.[6] The two formations are the subunits of the Bahía Laura Group.[1]
Fossil content
La Matilde is known for the abundant fossils recovered from it. Notable fossil localities in the formation include the Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest, the Cerro Madre e Hija Petrified Forest, and the remains and trace fossils (including trackways) of dinosaurs in the Laguna Manantiales Farm.[7][8]
Fossil taxa recovered from the La Matilde Formation include:[9][10]
- Flora
- Agathoxylon matildense
- Araucaria mirabilis
- Araucarites sanctaecrucis
- Brachyphyllum
- Equisetum thermale[11]
- Pararaucaria patagonica
- Ichnofossils
- Ameghinichnus patagonicus[12]
- Casamiquelichnus navesorum
- Delatorrichnus goyenechei[13]
- Grallator
- Notobatrachus degiustoi
- Sarmientichnus scagliai[13]
- Wildeichnus navesi[14]
References
- Claudio A. Sylwan (2001). "Geology of the Golfo San Jorge Basin, Argentina" (PDF). Journal of Iberian Geology. 27: 123–157. ISSN 0378-102X.
- Channing et al., 2007
- Clarke et al., 2011
- Sequiera & Farrell, 2001
- Iglesias et al., 2011
- Ana Parras; Miguel Griffin (2009). "Darwin's great patagonian tertiary formation at the mouth of the río Santa Cruz: a reappraisal". Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina. 64 (1). ISSN 1851-8249.
- Fernando E. Novas (2009). The age of dinosaurs in South America. Indiana University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-253-35289-7.
- IUCN Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas (1982). IUCN directory of neotropical protected areas. IUCN. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-907567-62-2.
- Thomas N. Taylor; Edith L. Taylor; Michael Krings (2009). Paleobotany: the biology and evolution of fossil plants. Academic Press. p. 844–845. ISBN 978-0-12-373972-8.
- Ruth A. Stockey; T.N. Taylor (1978). "On the structure and evolutionary relationships of the Cerro Cuadrado fossil conifer seedlings" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 76 (2): 161–176. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1978.tb01504.x.
- Channing, A.; Zamuner, A.; Edwards, D.; Guido, D. (2011). "Equisetum thermale sp. nov. (Equisetales) from the Jurassic San Agustin hot spring deposit, Patagonia: Anatomy, paleoecology, and inferred paleoecophysiology". American Journal of Botany. 98 (4): 680–697. doi:10.3732/ajb.1000211. PMID 21613167.
- Leonardi, 1994, p.27
- Leonardi, 1994, p.26
- Leonardi, 1994, p.25
Bibliography
- Channing, Alan; Alba B. Zamuner, and Adolfo Zúñiga. 2007. A new Middle–Late Jurassic flora and hot spring chert deposit from the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Geological Magazine 144. 401–411. Accessed 2019-03-26.
- Clarke, John T.; Rachel C.M. Warnock, and Philip C.J. Donoghue. 2011. Establishing a time-scale for plant evolution. New Phytologist 192. 266–301. Accessed 2019-03-26.
- Iglesias, Ari; Analia E. Artabe, and Eduardo M. Morel. 2011. The evolution of Patagonian climate and vegetation from the Mesozoic to the present. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 103. 409–422. Accessed 2019-03-26.
- Leonardi, Giuseppe. 1994. Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an appendix on Mexico and Central America, 1–248. Ministerio de Minas e Energia - Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais, Geological Service of Brazil. Accessed 2019-03-25.
- Sequiera, Andrea S., and Brian D. Farrell. 2001. Evolutionary origins of Gondwanan interactions: How old are Araucaria beetle herbivores?. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 74. 459–474. Accessed 2019-03-26.
- Weishampel, David B.; Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska (eds.). 2004. The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, 1–880. Berkeley: University of California Press. Accessed 2019-02-21.ISBN 0-520-24209-2