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Revista mexicana de ciencias geológicas
On-line version ISSN 2007-2902Print version ISSN 1026-8774
Rev. mex. cienc. geol vol.22 n.3 Ciudad de México Dec. 2005
Artículos
A new lithographic limestone deposit in the Upper Cretaceous Austin Group at El Rosario, county of Múzquiz, Coahuila, northeastern Mexico
Un nuevo depósito de caliza litográfica en el Grupo Austin del Cretácico Superior en El Rosario, municipio de Múzquiz, Coahuila, noreste de México
1Universität Karlsruhe, Geologisches Institut, Postfach 6980, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany. Wolfgang.stinnesbeck@bio-geo.uni-karlsruhe.de
2Geowissenschaftliche Abteilung, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Erbprinzenstrasse 13, D-76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.
3Museo del Desierto, Prolongación Pérez Treviño 3745, Centro Metropolitano Parque Las Maravillas, 25015 Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
4Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, 04510 México, D.F., Mexico
5Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
6Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Rd., Princeton, NJ 08544-1003, USA.
7Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P.O.Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06521-8109, USA.
At El Rosario, 170 km WNW of Múzquiz in northern Coahuila, Mexico, alternating evenly layered platy limestone and fissile marly limestone of late Turonian-early Coniacian age (Late Cretaceous) contain vertebrate fossils with exceptionally well-preserved anatomical details of their soft tissues, as well as abundant ammonoids, inoceramids and other invertebrates. Deposition was in an open marine shelf environment near the southern opening of the Western Interior Seaway, several hundreds of kilometers south of the North American coastline, in water depths of at least 50-100 m. The present research intends to highlight the enormous preservational potential of this new conservation deposit (Konservat-Lagerstätte) and to analyze the paleoenvironmental conditions present at this locality. Our preliminary data suggest that the El Rosario fossil deposit is a combined result of anoxic bottom conditions, early diagenetic phosphatization, and rapid burial in a soft, micritic lime mud.
Key words: Upper Cretaceous; fossil preservation; Konservat-Lagerstätte; limestone; Coahuila; Mexico
En El Rosario, aproximadamente a 170 km al WNW de Múzquiz, en la parte norte del Estado de Coahuila, México, una alternancia de calizas en laja y calizas margosas hojeadas de edad Turoniano tardío y Coniaciano temprano (Cretácico Tardío) contiene fósiles de vertebrados con preservación excepcional que incluye sus partes blandas, así como ammonoideos, inocerámidos y otros invertebrados. Los sedimentos se depositaron en un ambiente de plataforma marina abierta, a cientos de kilómetros de la costa sur del continente norteamericano, con profundidades del agua de por lo menos 50 a 100 m. En el presente trabajo se pretende demostrar el enorme potencial preservacional de este extraordinario depósito (Konservat-Lagerstätte). Nuestros datos preliminares sugieren que la excelente preservación fosilífera en El Rosario es el resultado de una combinación de factores, entre ellos condiciones anóxicas en el fondo marino, una fosfatización diagenética muy temprana, y un enterramiento rápido en un lodo micrítico blando.
Palabras clave: Cretácico Superior; preservación de fósiles, Konservat-Lagerstätte, caliza, Coahuila, México
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to the family of José Martínez from Múzquiz for taking us to the El Rosario quarry and col-lecting the first fossils for us. We also acknowledge the preparation of the fossil specimens by Stefan Unrein and Frank Wittler (both UKRG), the microprobe analysis of some fossils by Volker Zibat (University of Karlsruhe) and logistical support by the Museo del Desierto, Saltillo, the Asociación de Paleontólogos Aficionados de Sabinas (PASAC), notably Héctor Porras-Muzquiz, and the Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Linares. We thank Luis Espinosa Arrubarrena and Walt Haenggi for their careful and constructive reviews of the manuscript. The Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia in Mexico kindly permitted the temporary exporta-tion of Múzquiz fossils to Karlsruhe, Germany. Financial support to this project was provided by the Volkswagen-Stiftung (Volkswagen Foundation, project number I/78866) and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (STI 128/9 and FR 1314/9).
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Received: January 31, 2005; Revised: June 10, 2005; Accepted: June 21, 2005
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