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Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 72, núm. 1, 2020, p. 1-21 |
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Article
Vertebrate fossils from the San José de Gracia quarry, a new Late Cretaceous marine fossil site in Puebla, Mexico
Fósiles de vertebrados de la cantera San José de Gracia, un nuevo sitio fósil marino del Cretácico Superior en Puebla, México
Jesús Alvarado-Ortega1,*, Kleyton M. Cantalice1, Jesús Alberto Díaz-Cruz2, Carlos Castañeda-Posadas3, Valentina Zavaleta-Villareal2
1 Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Alcaldía Coyoacán, CDMX, 04510, Mexico.
2 Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Alcaldía Coyoacán, CDMX, 04510, Mexico.
3 Laboratorio de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Edificio Bio-1, Ciudad Universitaria, Jardines de San Manuel, Puebla, 72570, Mexico.
* Corresponding author: (J. Alvarado-Ortega)
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To cite this article: Alvarado-Ortega, J., Cantalice, K. M., Díaz-Cruz, J. A. Castañeda-Posadas, C., & Zavaleta-Villareal, V., 2020, Vertebrate fossils from the San José de Gracia quarry, a new Late Cretaceous marine fossil site in Puebla, Mexico: Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, 72 (1), A160819. http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2020v72n1a160819
Abstract
The San José de Gracia Quarry, located within the Municipality of Molcaxac, southern Puebla, Mexico, is a new paleontological site discovered about a decade ago. This paper is the first formal scientific contribution of this site. The quarry occupies an area no larger than the two hectares that is exploited for commercial purposes, where slabs are extracted from a marine sequence of cream-brown strata of poorly carbonated clays, with centimetric thickness. Although the upper and lower limits of this sequence are not known; the characteristic lithology and fossil content do not correspond with those of the regional geological units previously reported. Although the fossil association recovered from the San José de Gracia Quarry is composed mostly of fish remains; it also contains ammonites, belemnites, inoceramids, indeterminate ostreids, reptiles and few plant remains. In this work, the first fossil fish remains from this locality are described, including representatives of Enchodus Laminospondylus and clupeid both previously known from Mexico; as well as the first record of Dercetis and Xenyllion from this country. In addition, a yaguarasaurine mosasaur is also reported. Based on its fossil content and its lithology, the fossil-bearing strata of the San José de Gracia quarry can be possibly referred to the Mexcala Formation (Morelos-Guerrero Basin) of Turonian age.
Keywords: San José de Gracia quarry, Turonian, Puebla, Mexcala Formation, vertebrates.
