Elsevier

Cretaceous Research

Volume 96, April 2019, Pages 184-195
Cretaceous Research

Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) brachiopods from the Rosablanca Formation, Colombia, South America: Biostratigraphic significance and paleogeographic implications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2018.12.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Different species of Early Cretaceous Sellithyris are confirmed using statistical analysis of external morphological data.

  • Brachiopods from the Rosablanca Formation, Zapatoca, Colombia, are described in detail for the first time.

  • A new species, Sellithyris elizabetha nov. sp. is described from Zapatoca, Colombia.

  • A taphonomic analysis of the brachiopod shells suggests a large-scale erosional hiatus in the Rosablanca Formation.

  • Lingularia? is identified from two horizons in the middle part of the Rosablanca Formation, Zapatoca.

Abstract

The Mesozoic fossil record of brachiopods in northern South America is relatively scarce and their biogeographical history is not well understood. Cretaceous brachiopods in this region are restricted to carbonate platforms of Colombia. Here we examine the brachiopod fauna from the middle part of the Rosablanca Formation near the town of Zapatoca, Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. We describe Sellithyris elizabetha nov. sp. combining traditional morphometrics and serial sectioning. This new terebratulide species shows morphological similarities with other species of the genus Sellithyris, including a Valanginian species from the ancient Gulf of Mexico. Using a semi-quantitative taphonomic analysis, we identified reworked specimens restricted to a single stratigraphic horizon, and consistent with a large-scale erosional hiatus that may affect the biochronology of the Rosablanca Formation. In addition, phosphatic shells of the lingulide Lingularia sp. were recovered from two stratigraphic horizons and are valuable for local correlations. Although much of the material is fragmentary, it represents the oldest occurrences of Cretaceous lingulides in the region so far. Lingulide brachiopods have traditionally been considered as rare elements in Cretaceous near-shore marine communities, however, the material reported here suggests that they may have been common locally.

Introduction

The Cretaceous fossil record of brachiopods in northern South America is relatively scarce and almost nothing is known from Tropical America (e.g., Belize, El Salvador and Honduras, to the north in Central America, southwards through Colombia to e.g., Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay in South America). Although Cretaceous marine deposits are widely exposed in northern South America, brachiopod occurrences in the region are restricted to a few localities in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (Schemm-Gregory et al., 2012) and northeastern Brazil (Holmer and Bengtson, 2009). Early Cretaceous brachiopods in this region have been described exclusively from carbonate platforms of Colombia. These fossil assemblages comprise a few shells of the species Hadrosia gracilis Schemm-Gregory et al. (2012) from Santa Sofía, Boyacá Province (Schemm-Gregory et al., 2012), and the terebratulide shells described herein as Sellithyris elizabetha nov. sp. from Zapatoca, Santander Province. The latter material was referred originally to “Terebratulasella Sowerby (Karsten, 1886, Dietrich, 1938) and Sellithyris sp. (Sandy, 1991a, Sandy, 1991b) in paleontological studies based on limited material with uncertain stratigraphic position and geographic location.

In this study we document new material collected during three field seasons carried out by the Colombian Geological Service (SGC), Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in the town of Zapatoca. We describe a new terebratulide species, Sellithyris elizabetha nov. sp. combining external and internal morphological data, the latter derived from serial sectioning a specimen. In addition, we report lingulide shells assigned provisionally to the genus Lingularia. It represents the first record of lingulide brachiopods from Lower Cretaceous rocks in northern South America. Finally, using a semi-quantitative taphonomic analysis of the terebratulide shells we identified reworked specimens in a single stratigraphic horizon, consistent with an erosional hiatus that may have affected the biochronology of the Rosablanca Formation. The new material discussed here is reposited at the Colombian Geological Service (SGC), Bogota-Colombia.

Section snippets

Sample collection

During a number of field seasons from 2012 to 2014, two stratigraphic sections 65 m and 140 m thick were sampled for macrofossils and also a number of additional sites nearby in the town of Zapatoca (Fig. 1). Here we follow the lithostratigraphic nomenclature from Guzman (1985), which is still informal but widely used by Colombian geoscientists. The sampled interval corresponds to the middle part of the Rosablanca Formation (see Gómez-Cruz et al., 2015) that was divided by Guzman (1985) into a

Systematic palaeontology

  • Order Lingulida Waagen, 1885

  • Superfamily Linguloidea Menke, 1828

  • Family Lingulidae Menke, 1828

  • Genus Lingularia Biernat and Emig, 1993

  • Type species: Lingularia similis Biernat and Emig (1993)

  • Lingularia sp.

  • Fig. 3U–V

  • Material. Dorsal valve IGM 880538-2 (Fig. 3U) (length 2.5 mm, width 1.6 mm); dorsal valve, IGM 880538-1 (Fig. 3V) (length 2.9 mm, width 1.7 mm); and 19 shell fragments IGM 880553.

  • Locality. Laguna del Sapo, Zapatoca Sapo (N 6° 50′ 35.26934″ W 73° 14′ 17.34847″), Santander Province,

Discussion

Available brachiopod material provides information concerning the age of the Rosablanca Formation in the Santander Province of Colombia. Although brachiopods are reported from only a few stratigraphic levels, the material is sufficient to provide some age constraint, as well as local correlations, on the examined part of this geological unit. The Rosablanca Formation is commonly considered to be Valanginian to early Hauterivian in age (e.g. Guzman, 1985), but the part of the formation that

Conclusions

  • Brachiopods from the middle part of the Rosablanca Formation, Zapatoca, Colombia, are located and described in detail for the first time.

  • Statistical analysis of external morphological characters confirms the presence of different species of Early Cretaceous Sellithyris.

  • A new species, Sellithyris elizabetha nov. sp. is described from Zapatoca, Colombia.

  • A taphonomic analysis differentiates in situ from reworked Sellithyris. This implies a large-scale erosional hiatus affecting the biochronology

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Michal Kowalewski and Roger Portell (Florida Museum of Natural History) for their support. AR is grateful to Dr. Etayo-Serna (Colombian Geological Service), Dr. Georgina Guzman (Universidad Industrial de Santander), Jorge Moreno (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) and Javier Luque (University of Alberta) for their invaluable support during the fieldwork in Zapatoca. Dr. Etayo-Serna and Dr. Georgina Guzman are also thanked for their comments on the chronostratigraphiy of the

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    Present address: Integrated Science Lab, Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden.

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