A vertebrate assemblage of Las Curtiembres Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of northwestern Argentina

• Autores: Carlos Agustín Scanferla, Federico Agnolin, Fernando E. Novas, Marcelo Saúl De la Fuente, Eduardo S. Bellosi, Ana María Báez, Alberto Luis Cione
• Localización: Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, ISSN-e 1853-0400, ISSN 1514-5158, Vol. 13, Nº. 2, 2011, págs. 195-204
• Idioma: español
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• Resumen

  • We describe an association of fossil vertebrates from the Morales Member of the Las CurtiembresFormation (Campanian) near Puente Morales, Salta Province, NW Argentina. The fossils include teleosteanfishes, pipid frogs, pleurodiran turtles, mesoeucrocodylians, non-avian theropod dinosaurs, and enantiornithinebirds. The vertebrate record is dominated by freshwater taxa. With the exception of pipid frogs, all taxa here describedconstitute new records for this sedimentary unit. Among them, the turtles are reported for the first timein the Cretaceous of northwestern Argentina (Salta Group). Additionally, the recently published small enantiornithineIntiornis inexpectatus enlarges the diversity of cretaceous birds from South America. Despite the fragmentarynature of the specimens, the information provided by this Late Cretaceous assemblage sheds new light on thecomposition of the continental vertebrate fauna in a paleontologically poorly known region of South America.