Santa Lucía Formation

The Santa Lucía Formation is a Maastrichtian to Paleocene (Danian) geologic formation in Bolivia. Fossil ornithopod tracks have been reported from the Cretaceous lower part of the formation.^[1] It is the type formation of the Tiupampan South American land mammal age.

Description

Paleogeography of Northern South America
65 Ma, by Ron Blakey

The Santa Lucía Formation is a formation of the Potosí Basin in Bolivia dated to the Paleocene, 60 to 58.2 Ma.^[2] It overlies the Cretaceous El Molino Formation and is overlain by the Cayara Formation. The formation is laterally equivalent with the Maíz Gordo Formation of northern Argentina,^[3] and time-equivalent with the Salamanca Formation of Argentina, the Maria Farinha Formation of the Paraíba Basin in northern Brazil and the Guaduas Formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and fossiliferous Cerrejón Formation of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin, Colombia.

The 381.35 metres (1,251.1 ft) thick formation consists of reddish sandy shales, marls and siltstones deposited in a fluvial to lacustrine environment.^[4][5]

Paleontological significance

The oldest known "condylarth" fauna of the Tertiary of South America comes from basal Paleocene strata of the Santa Lucía Formation at Tiupampa. It includes five genera and seven species: Molinodus suarez, Tiuclaenus minutus, T. cotasi, T. robustus, Pucanodus gagnieri, Andinodus boliviensis, and Simoclaenus sylvaticus.^[6] Because of its unique fauna, the Santa Lucía Formation at Tiupampa has been chosen as the earliest South American land mammal age giving rise to the Tiupampan.

At the Parotani tracksite, poorly preserved ichnofossils were found in the Maastrichtian part of the formation, left possibly by a carnosaur.^[7]

Fossil content

The fossiliferous formation has provided the following fossils:

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
  • List of stratigraphic units with ornithischian tracks
    • Ornithopod tracks

References

1. Weishampel, et al., 2004, pp.517-607
2. Sempere et al., 1997, p.709
3. Sempere et al., 1997, p.712
4. Jiménez, 2012, p.11
5. Renner & Velasco, 2000, p.25
6. De Muizon & Cifelli, 2000, p.47
7. Leonardi, 1994, p.40
8. Gayet et al., 1991, p.403
9. Tiupampa 1 at Fossilworks.org
10. Buffetaut & Marshall, 1991
11. Rage, 1991a, pp.499-501
12. Rage, 1991b, pp.503-508
13. Vila Vila at Fossilworks.org

Bibliography

• Buffetaut, É.; Marshall, L.G. (1991), A new crocodilian, Sebecus querejazus, nov. sp. (Mesosuchia, Sebecidae) from the Santa Lucía Formation (Early Paleocene) at Vila Vila, Southern Bolivia, Revista Técnica de YPFB, pp. 545–557
• Gaffney, Eugene S.; Meylan, Peter A.; Wood, Roger C.; Simons, Elwyn; De Almeida Campos, Diogenes (2011), "Evolution of the side-necked turtles: the family Podocnemididae" (PDF), AMNH Bulletin, 350: 1–237, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Gayet, Mireille; Marshall, Larry G.; Sempere, Thierry (1991), "The Mesozoic and Paleocene vertebrates of Bolivia and their stratigraphic context: a review", Revista técnica de YPFB, 12: 393–433, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Jiménez, Grisel (2012), Estratigrafía, facies y ambientes evolutivos de depósito del Paleógeno Inferior: Formación Santa Lucía (Sinclinal de Miraflores - Sección Cayara, Potosí) (PDF), ., pp. 1–23, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Leonardi, Giuseppe (1994), Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an appendix on Mexico and Central America, Ministerio de Minas e Energia - Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais, Geological Service of Brazil, pp. 1–248, retrieved 2019-03-25
• De Muizon, C.; Cifelli, R.L. (2000), "The "condylarths" (archaic Ungulata, Mammalia) from the early Palaeocene of Tiupampa (Bolivia): implications on the origin of the South American ungulates" (PDF), Geodiversitas, 22: 47–150, retrieved 2019-02-08
• Rage, J.C (1991a), "Gymnophionan Amphibia from the early Paleocene (Santa Lucía Formation) of Tiupampa (Bolivia). The oldest known Gymnophiona", Revista técnica de YPFB, 12: 499–501, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Rage, J.C (1991b), "Squamate Reptiles from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa area (Santa Lucía Formation), Bolivia", Revista técnica de YPFB, 12: 503–508, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Renner, Sven; Velasco, Carlos (2000), "Geología e hidrogeología del Valle Central de Cochabamba" (PDF), Boletín del Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, 34: 1–113, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Sempere, Thierry; Butler, R.F.; Richards, D.R.; Marshall, L.G.; Sharp, W.; Swisher, C.C. (1997), "Stratigraphy and chronology of Upper Cretaceous-lower Paleogene strata in Bolivia and northwest Argentina" (PDF), GSA Bulletin, 109 (6): 709–727, Bibcode:1997GSAB..109..709S, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1997)109<0709:SACOUC>2.3.CO;2, retrieved 2017-08-15
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (1991), The Dinosauria, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–861