Lecho Formation
The Lecho Formation is a geological formation in the Salta Basin of the provinces Jujuy and Salta of northwestern Argentina. Its strata date back to the Early Maastrichtian, and is a unit of the Salta Group. The fine-grained bioturbated sandstones of the formation were deposited in a fluvial to lacustrine coastal plain environment. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. According to Frankfurt and Chiappe (1999), the Lecho Formation is composed of reddish sandstones. The Lecho is part of the Upper/Late Cretaceous Balbuena Subgroup (Salta Group), which is a near-border stratigraphic unit of the Andean sedimentary basin. Fossils from this formation include the titanosaur Saltasaurus along with a variety of avian and non-avian theropods.
| Lecho Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Early Maastrichtian ~ | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Salta Group |
| Underlies | Yacoraite Formation |
| Overlies | Los Blanquitos Formation |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Sandstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 26°06′S 65°24′W / 26.1°S 65.4°W |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 28°36′S 52°00′W / 28.6°S 52.0°W |
| Region | Jujuy, Salta |
| Country | Argentina |
| Extent | Salta Basin |
  Lecho Formation (Argentina) | |
The Lecho Formation is a geological formation in the Salta Basin of the provinces Jujuy and Salta of northwestern Argentina. Its strata date back to the Early Maastrichtian, and is a unit of the Salta Group. The fine-grained bioturbated sandstones of the formation were deposited in a fluvial to lacustrine coastal plain environment.
Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.[1]
According to Frankfurt and Chiappe (1999), the Lecho Formation is composed of reddish sandstones. The Lecho is part of the Upper/Late Cretaceous Balbuena Subgroup (Salta Group), which is a near-border stratigraphic unit of the Andean sedimentary basin. Fossils from this formation include the titanosaur Saltasaurus along with a variety of avian and non-avian theropods.
Fossil content
[edit]Dinosaurs
[edit]| Dinosaurs from the Lecho Formation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Material | Notes | Images |
| Abelisauridae[2] | Indeterminate | El Brete | Isolated teeth. | May represent more than one species of abelisaurid | |
| Elbretornis[3] | E. bonapartei | El Brete | Scapula, partial coracoid, humerus, partial radius, partial ulna | An enantiornithine bird | |
| Enantiornis[3][4] | E. leali | El Brete | Postcranial elements | An enantiornithine bird | |
| Euenantiornithes indet.[3] | Indeterminate | El Brete | Partial right lower jaw | An enantiornithine bird | |
| Lectavis[5] | L. bretincola | El Brete | Tarsometatarsus and tibiotarsus | An enantiornithine bird |  |
| Martinavis[3] | M. minor | El Brete | Partial humerus | An enantiornithine bird | |
| M. saltariensis | El Brete | Humerus | |||
| M. vincei | El Brete | Humeri | |||
| M. whetstonei | El Brete | Partial humerus | |||
| Noasaurus[2] | N. leali | El Brete | Isolated elements from the head and foot, as well as a verebral arch. | A Noasaurid abelisaur |  |
| Saltasaurus[6] | S. loricatus | El Brete | "Partial skeletons of at least [six] individuals, including jaws and armor."[7] | A saltasaurid titanosaur |  |
| Soroavisaurus[5] | S. australis | El Brete | Tarsometatarsus and phalanges. | An enantiornithine bird |  |
| Yungavolucris[5] | Y. brevipedalis | El Brete | Tarsometatarsi | An enantiornithine bird | |
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Weishampel et al., 2004, "Dinosaur distribution (Late Cretaceous, South America)." pp. 600-604
- ^ a b Hendrickx, Christophe; Cerroni, Mauricio A; Agnolín, Federico L; Catalano, Santiago; Ribeiro, Cátia F; Delcourt, Rafael (2024-12-01). "Osteology, relationship, and feeding ecology of the theropod dinosaur Noasaurus leali, from the Late Cretaceous of North-Western Argentina". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 202 (4). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae150. ISSN 0024-4082.
- ^ a b c d Cyril A. Walker; Gareth J. Dyke (2009). "Euenantiornithine birds from the Late Cretaceous of El Brete (Argentina)" (PDF). Irish Journal of Earth Sciences. 27: 15–62. doi:10.3318/IJES.2010.27.15. S2CID 129573066. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-20.
- ^ Walker, C. A. (1981). "New subclass of birds from the Cretaceous of South America". Nature. 292 (5818): 51–53. doi:10.1038/292051a0. ISSN 0028-0836.
- ^ a b c Chiappe, Luis (1993). "Enantiornithine (Aves) tarsometatarsi from the Cretaceous Lecho Formation of northwestern Argentina". American Museum Novitates (3083): 1–27. S2CID 39613970.
- ^ Zurriaguz, Virginia; Powell, Jaime (2015-05-01). "New contributions to the presacral osteology of Saltasaurus loricatus (Sauropoda, Titanosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of northern Argentina". Cretaceous Research. 54: 283–300. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2014.12.012. ISSN 0195-6671.
- ^ "Table 13.1," in Weishampel et al., 2004, p.270
Bibliography
[edit]- Walker; Dyke (2009), "Euenantiornithine birds from the Late Cretaceous of El Brete (Argentina)", Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, 27: 15–62, doi:10.3318/IJES.2010.27.15
- Agnolin, F.L.; Martinelli, A.G. (2007), "Did oviraptorosaurs (Dinosauria; Theropoda) inhabit Argentina?" (PDF), Cretaceous Research, 28 (5): 785–790, Bibcode:2007CrRes..28..785A, doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2006.10.006
- Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (2004), The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–880, ISBN 0-520-24209-2, retrieved 2019-02-21
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - Frankfurt, N.G.; Chiappe, L.M. (1999), "A Possible Oviraptorosaur From The Late Cretaceous of Northwestern Argentina", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 19 (1): 101–105, Bibcode:1999JVPal..19..101F, doi:10.1080/02724634.1999.10011126