Lower Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) ammonites from the basal strata of the La Peña Formation of Nuevo León State, northeast Mexico: biochronostratigraphic implications

Detailed paleontological studies of the basal strata of the La Peña Formation from a stratigraphicsection of the State of Nuevo León, northeastern Mexico, reveal a rich ammonite assemblage representativeof the local biozone indicative of the uppermost level of the early Aptian corresponding to the D...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ricardo Barragán, Florentin J-M. R. Maurrasse
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2008
Country:México
Institution:Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Repository:Redalyc-UNAM
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:57225109
Online Access:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=57225109
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Ciencias de la Tierra
Mexico
Ammonites
early Aptian
Lower Cretaceous
La Peña Formation
Description
Summary:Detailed paleontological studies of the basal strata of the La Peña Formation from a stratigraphicsection of the State of Nuevo León, northeastern Mexico, reveal a rich ammonite assemblage representativeof the local biozone indicative of the uppermost level of the early Aptian corresponding to the Dufrenoyiajustinae Taxon Range Zone. The Lower Aptian assignment of this Mexican biozone is corroborated byits distinctive ammonite assemblage characteristic of both uppermost early Aptian standard ammonitezones of the stage; namely the Dufrenoyia furcata Zone, of the tripartite Mediterranean standard scheme,and its equivalent Tropaeum bowerbankii Zone of the northeastern Europe bipartite scheme. Thus, inMexico, the shift of deposition from a shallow carbonate platform locally represented by facies of theCupido Formation, to the deeper facies of the La Peña Formation took place sometime during the lateearly Aptian and not in the late Aptian as previously assigned. To avoid diachronic interpretations of theCupido-La Peña formational contact, the ammonites analyzed in this study for biochronostratigraphicpurposes, were compared to other coeval assemblages reported from the basal strata of the La PeñaFormation on a regional scale