ammonites
Arroyo El Morterito (PVL) (Cretaceous of Argentina)

Where: Salta, Argentina (24.3° S, 65.3° W: paleocoordinates 27.5° S, 48.0° W)

• coordinate based on political unit

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Los Blanquitos Formation (Salta Group), Campanian (83.5 - 70.6 Ma)

• details of several local stratigraphic sections given for correlative purposes. Pirgua Subgroup, upper section of formation. Earlier suggestions for age included Maastrichtian, but overlying Lecho Fm is now considered ?Campanian-Early Maastrichtian.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; lithified, micaceous, gray, red, conglomeratic sandstone and lithified, pebbly, gray, green, calcareous sandstone

• depositional facies in local "sub-basins", but overall regional character is not described in detail. "fluvial environment of some energy."
• Friable, micaceous, grayish-red sandstone with quartz pebbles furrowed with small carbonate veins. In the base of this layer the remains of the titanosaurid dinosaur described were discovered. Above the layer with bones appears a lens of thick, greenish-gray, calcareous, very hard sandstone with pebbles and gravel. The bones were covered by a "halo" of the same rock but of greenish or grayish color, especially visible because the normal sediment is red. Thickness 1.5 m. (translated from Spanish by M. Carrano)

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by J. Bonaparte and crew in 1966-1975

Collection methods: quarrying, mechanical,

Primary reference: J. F. Bonaparte and G. Bossi. 1967. Sobre la presencia de dinosaurios en la Formación Pirgua del Grupo Salta y su significado cronologico [On the presence of dinosaurs in the Pirgua Formation of the Salta Group and its chronologic significance]. Acta Geologica Lilloana 9:25-44 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano] more details

Purpose of describing collection: biostratigraphic analysis

PaleoDB collection 13209: authorized by Matt Carrano, entered by Matt Carrano on 29.01.2002

Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (attribution-noncommercial-no derivatives)