El Miedo Cave (Miocene of Venezuela)

Where: Falcon, Venezuela (10.9° N, 68.6° W: paleocoordinates 10.4° N, 66.0° W)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Capadare Formation, Middle Miocene (16.0 - 11.6 Ma)

• ased on its foraminifer assemblage, the Capadare Formation was assigned to the middle Miocene, Globorotalia fohsi fohsi-Globorotalia sjakensis Biozone (Renz, 1948; Lorente, 1978; D ́ıaz de Gamero, 1985). Using strontium isotope analyses (ratio of 87Sr/86Sr) from a marine mollusc shell (Ostrea sp.), (Solo ́rzano & Rinco ́n, in press) placed the Capadare Formation in the middle Miocene (∼12.24 Ma).

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shallow subtidal; limestone

• The Capadare Formation is a thick sequence of massive carbonate layers deposited in shallows marine waters (Lorente, 1978), which crops out in northwestern Venezuela. It represents isolated carbonate platforms, without coastal or continental influence, in entirely open sea conditions, with well oxygenated and clear waters, normal salinity, and moderate energy in a tropical climate (Lorente, 1978; Diaz de Gamero, 1985)

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: chemical

• IVIC-P-2908 (IVIC-P: Coleccion de Paleontologia, Instituto Venezolano

•de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela)

Primary reference: G. S. Ferreira, A. D. Rincon, A. Solorzano and M. C. Langer. 2015. The last marine pelomedusoids (Testudines: Pleurodira): a new species of Bairdemys and the paleoecology of Stereogenyina. PeerJ 1-29 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 191413: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 28.01.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• The record of vertebrates from the Capadare Formation includes Pelagornis cf. P. chilensis (Aves: Odontopterygiformes) and shark teeth, but Pleistocene fossils were also recovered in the bottom of the El Miedo cave.
Reptilia
 Testudines - Podocnemididae
Bairdemys thalassica n. sp. Ferreira et al. 2015 sideneck turtle
IVIC-P-2908, almost complete skull