New marine reptile assemblage from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary beds of the High Andes, Argentina

FERNÁNDEZ, M.S.; VENNARI, V.V.; HERRERA, Y.; CAMPOS, L.; TALEVI, M.; DE LA FUENTE, M.S.

San Luis Potosí

Congreso; 10th International Symposium on the Cretaceous System; 2018

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Jurassic marine reptiles from the southern margin of the Eastern Pacific have been documented since the XIX century. Most of them have been recorded at the Neuquén Basin (west-central Argentina) in sedimentary rocks of the Vaca Muerta Formation (lower Tithonian-lower Valanginian). Outcrops of this lithographic unit in the southern sector of the basin have proven to be highly fosiliferous in marine reptiles (e.g. Cerro Lotena, Los Catutos and Pampa Tril, in the Neuquén Province; Gasparini and Dellapé, 1976; Pol and Gasparini, 2009; Gasparini and Fernández, 2011; Herrera et al., 2013). By contrast, exposures of the Vaca Muerta Formation in the northern sector of the Neuquén basin (Mendoza Province), though widely distributed, had not been prospected for marine reptiles since the middle of the XX century (e.g. Rusconi, 1938, 1948a, b, 1967).