Cementos Andinos quarry (28 m above base) (Cretaceous of Venezuela)

Where: Trujillo, Venezuela (9.6° N, 70.4° W: paleocoordinates 1.5° N, 46.1° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: La Aguada Member (La Luna Formation), Cenomanian (100.5 - 93.9 Ma)

• ~28 m above the base of the La Aguada Member

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; black shale

• Marine environment where laminated organic rich intervals suggest a deposition on the mid-shelf to upper continental slope under anoxic or poorly oxygenated conditions. Gonzalez de Juana et al. (1980) suggested that the La Aguada Member could be considered as a transitional environment between the shallow waters of the Maraca formation (or La Puya Member according to Renz, 1959, 1968) and the pelagic facies of the La Luna Formation. Erlich et al. (1999) and Mendez (1981) suggested that the anoxic conditions of the La Luna Formation during the late Albian-early Cenomanian transgression were not due to water depth but to pre-existing anoxic conditions in the slope zone. On basis of benthic and planktonic foraminifera, Mendez (1981) recognized an increase in the submersion of the platform, but probably with depths that did not exceed 50 m.
• Black shale layer

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by J.D. Carrillo-Briceño in 2013-2016

• Repository: Alcaldía Bolivariana de Urumaco, Venezuela (AMU-CURS)

Primary reference: A. Albino, J. D. Carrillo-Briceño, and J. M. Neenan. 2016. An enigmatic aquatic snake from the Cenomanian of northern South America. PeerJ 4:e2027:1-26 [P. Mannion/P. Mannion/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 176561: authorized by Pauline Coster, entered by Pauline Coster on 17.02.2016, edited by Philip Mannion

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Bivalvia
  -
Bivalvia indet. Linnaeus 1758 clam
Chondrichthyes
 Euselachii -
Lamniformes indet. Berg 1958 mackerel shark
Reptilia
 Squamata -
Lunaophis aquaticus n. gen. n. sp.
Lunaophis aquaticus n. gen. n. sp. Albino et al. 2016 snake
MNCN-1827 - holotype (vertebrae)
Actinopteri
 Aulopiformes - Enchodontidae
Enchodontidae indet. Woodward 1901
 Teleostei -
Ichthyodectiformes indet. Bardack and Sprinkle 1969
 Ichthyodectiformes - Ichthyodectidae
Xiphactinus audax Leidy 1870
Isolated and semi-articulated cranial and postcranial elements