El Miedo Cave: Middle Miocene, Venezuela

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia - Testudines - Podocnemididae
Bairdemys thalassica n. sp. Ferreira et al. 2015
IVIC-P-2908, almost complete skull
see common names

Geography
Country:Venezuela State/province:Falcon
Coordinates: 10.9° North, 68.6° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:10.4° North, 66.0° West
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Time
Period:Neogene Epoch:Miocene
10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 5
Key time interval:Middle Miocene
Age range of interval:15.97000 - 11.60800 m.y. ago
Age estimate:12.24 Ma (Sr isotope)
Stratigraphy
Formation:Capadare
Stratigraphic resolution:formation
Stratigraphy comments: 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).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: "limestone"
Includes fossils?Y
Environment:shallow subtidal indet.
Geology comments: 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)
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:chemical
Collection size:1 specimens
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collection method comments: IVIC-P-2908 (IVIC-P: Coleccion de Paleontologia, Instituto Venezolano
de Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela)
Taxonomic list comments: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.
Metadata
Database number:191413
Authorizer:E. Vlachos Enterer:E. Vlachos
Research group:vertebrate
Created:2018-01-28 14:40:37 Last modified:2018-01-28 14:40:37
Access level:the public Released:2018-01-28 14:40:37
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:

64593. 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]