Miocene Mollusks from the Simojovel Area in Chiapas, Southwestern Mexico
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Journal of South American Earth Sciences 30 (2010) 111e119 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of South American Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsames Miocene mollusks from the Simojovel area in Chiapas, southwestern Mexico María del Carmen Perrilliat a, Francisco J. Vega a,*, Marco A. Coutiño b a Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, México DF 04510, Mexico b Museo de Paleontología “Eliseo Palacios Aguilera”, Instituto de Historia Natural de Chiapas, Calzada de Los Hombres Ilustres s/n, Parque Madero 29000, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico article info abstract Article history: The fauna of gastropods and bivalves from the amber-bearing lithostratigraphic units of the Simojovel Received 17 October 2009 area, Chiapas is reported, including the description of two new species and one subspecies: Turbinella Accepted 22 April 2010 maya new species, Melongena corona tzeltal new subspecies and Agladrillia (Eumetadrillia) vermeiji new species. Stratigraphic affinities of the previously described species suggest an Early Miocene age for the Keywords: Mazantic Shale, and a Middle Miocene age for the overlying Balumtum Sandstone. One specimen of Mollusca gastropod, with a relatively large piece of amber attached to the adapertural part of the shell is repre- Miocene sentative for an Early Miocene age and estuarine paleoenvironmental interpretation for the Mazantic Chiapas Amber Shale. Mollusca, Miocene, Chiapas, Amber, Mexico. Ó Mexico 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction bravoi Spieker, 1922; bivalves: Lithophaga (Lithophaga) nigra (D’Orbigny, 1853), Leptopecten cf. L. ecnomius Woodring, 1982, The purpose of this paper is to report and describe the gastropod Nodipecten denaius? Woodring, 1982, Lucina (Lepilucina) gratis and bivalve fauna from the Lower and Middle Miocene in Chiapas, Olsson, 1964, Linga podagrinus alarantus Woodring, 1925, Trachy- in the southwestern part of Mexico. Two new species and one cardium (Dallocardia) cf. T.(D.) phlyctaena (Dall, 1900), Trig- subspecies are described. Previous works devoted to the descrip- oniocardia (Apiocardia) cf. T.(A.) aminensis (Dall, 1900), Dosinia tion of mollusks for that region include Böse (1905); turritellid (Dosinia) delicatissima Brown and Pilsbry, 1913, Clementia (Clem- gastropods by Allison (1967), and Allison and Adegoke (1969). entia) dariena dariena (Conrad, 1855), Cyclinella cyclica (Guppy, Perrilliat et al. (2004) informally reported gastropods and bivalves 1866), Caryocorbula sarda (Dall, 1898), Panopea parawhitfieldi from the Simojovel area. The study fauna was collected from the (Gardner, 1928), and Hyotissa cf. H. guppyi (Woodring, 1925). Their following localities near Simojovel, Chiapas: locality IGM 2023, occurrence on the studied localities, along with those specimens locality IGM 2024, El Pistón, Los Pocitos, locality Simojovel, locality which were only identified at supraspecific level is given on Table 1. Huitiupan and locality Km 0 þ 1560 Simojovel (Fig. 1). The fauna is Table 2 illustrates geographic distribution of previously described represented by 14 genera of the gastropod families Cerithiidae, species in regions outside Chiapas. Turritellidae, Strombidae, Xenophoridae, Cypraeidae, Turbinellidae, Locality IGM 2023 is Campo Alegre, near Simojovel, Huitiupán Buccinidae, Olividae, Marginellidae, Mitridae, Turridae, Conidae, County, at 170604600 N and 924200800 W, with gastropods, bivalves Terebridae and Architectonicidae, and by 17 genera of the bivalve and insects in amber. Locality IGM 2024 is Santa Catarina las Pal- families Mytilidae, Pectinidae, Lucinidae, Astartidae, Cardiidae, mas, 9 km (N 65) from Simojovel, on N side of Valle del río Ancora, Tellinidae, Veneridae, Corbulidae, Hiatellidae, Pholadomyidae and at 1711 01000N and 924000400 W, with corals, gastropods and Gryphaeidae. In addition to two new species and one new bivalves. El Pistón locality is found 4 km SW of Huitiupán, at subspecies of gastropod, the following species of mollusks were 170803200N and 923803800 W, with gastropods, bivalves and crus- determined (for illustration see Table 1 and Figs. 4 and 5): Turritella taceans. Los Pocitos locality is found 2 km NE of Simojovel, at group of T. altilira Conrad, 1857, Xenophora delecta (Guppy, 1876), 170805300N and 924304500W, with gastropods, bivalves insects in Cypraea (Erosaria) cf. C.(E.) aliena (Schilder, 1939), Oliva cf. O. amber and crustaceans. Simojovel de Allende is found 126 km NNW dimidiata Pilsbry and Johnson, 1917, Persicula cf. P. zuliana (Hodson of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, on Federal Highway 195, to reach road that et al., 1927), Mitra (Tiara) henekeni illacidata Woodring, 1928, Conus leads to Puerto Caté; State Highway 173 leads from Puerto Caté to Simojovel. Outcrop is found at 171000200N and 924200500, with * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ52 55 5622 4320. gastropods, bivalves and crustaceans. Huitiupán locality is found 0 00 0 00 E-mail address: [email protected] (F.J. Vega). 1 km E of Huitiupán town, at 17 08 06 N and 92 40 55 W, with 0895-9811/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2010.04.005 112 M. del Carmen Perrilliat et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 30 (2010) 111e119 Fig. 1. Location map of Simojovel area, Chiapas, with localities reported in this contribution. gastropods and bivalves. Locality Km 0 þ 1560 is found on Federal the Mazantic Shale contain amber fragments, benthic foraminifera, Highway 195, 3 km S of Simojovel, at 170704600N and 924105900W, gastropods, bivalves and crustaceans. Based on 87Sr/86Sr measure- with gastropods and bivalves. ments taken from a well-preserved shell of Turbinella maya new Specimens were collected from two lithostratigraphic units species from Los Pocitos, Vega et al. (2009, p. 53) obtained an known as the amber-bearing Mazantic Shale and the comformably absolute age of 23 Ma for the Mazantic Shale, placing it right at the overlying Balumtum Sandstone (Fig. 2). The amber of Chiapas is limit between the Oligocene and Miocene. famous for its quality and fossil content. Its age has been a matter of debate. A Late Oligocene e Early Miocene age has been proposed in multiple contributions (Langenheim, 1966; Tomasini-Ortíz and Martínez-Hernández, 1984; Santiago-Blay and Poinar, 1993; Bousfield and Poinar, 1994; Poinar and Brown, 2002; Poinar, 2003; Engel, 2004; Castañeda-Posadas and Cevallos-Ferriz, 2007). Ferrusquía-Villafranca (2006) described a new species of artio- dactyl from Los Pocitos locality, and considered a Late Oligocene age for these sediments, based on previous biostratigraphic inter- pretations of Frost and Langenheim (1974) and paleomagnetic studies for which the author did not cited any reference, and sug- gested “that the age of Los Pocitos strata fall within the 28e26 Ma” (Ferrusquía-Villafranca, 2006, p. 993). Other authors suggest that the amber-bearing stratigraphic units are of Middle Miocene age, and thus correlatives with the units that produce amber in the Dominican Republic (Meneses- Rocha, 2001; Solórzano-Kraemer, 2007; Solórzano-Kraemer and Mohrig, 2007). At Los Pocitos locality (Fig. 1), dark-gray shales of Fig. 2. Amber-bearing lithostratigraphic units that crop out in the Simojovel area. M. del Carmen Perrilliat et al. / Journal of South American Earth Sciences 30 (2010) 111e119 113 Table 1 Distribution of species on studied localities of Simojovel area, Chiapas and their illustration. species locality Loc. 2023 Loc. 2024 El Pistón Los Pocitos Simojovel Huitiupán Km 0 þ 1560 Figures Rhinoclavis (Ochetoclava) sp. X 4-1 Turritella group T. altilira X X 4-2e4 Turritella sp. X X 4-5&6 Strombus bifrons X X 4-7 Xenophora delecta X X 4-8 Cypraea (Erosaria) cf. C.(E.) aliena X 4-9&10 Turbinella maya new species X 4-11e14 Melongena corona tzeltal X 4-15e21 new subspecies Oliva cf. O. dimidiata X 4-22 Persicula cf. P. zuliana 4-23&24 Persicula (Rabicea) sp. 4-25&26 Mitra (Tiara) henekeni illacidata X 4-27&28 Agladrillia (Eumetadrillia) 4-29&30 vermeiji new species Conus bravoi X X 4-31 Strioterebrum sp. X 4-32 Architectonica sp. X 4-33 Lithophaga (Lithophaga) nigra X 5-1&2 Aequipecten sp. X 5-3&4 Leptopecten cf. L. ecnomius X 5-5&6 Nodipecten denaius? X 5-7 Pectinidae X 5-8 Lucina (Lepilucina) gratis X 5-9 Linga podagrinus alarantus X 5-10 Astarte sp. X 5-11 Trachycardium (Dallocardia) X 5-12 cf. T.(D.) phlyctaena Trigoniocardia (Apiocardia) X 5-13 cf. T.(A.) aminensis Laevicardium sp. X 5-14e16 Tellina sp. X 5-17 Dosinia (Dosinia) delicatissima X 5-18&19 Clementia (Clementia) X 5-20e22 dariena dariena Cyclinella cyclica X 5-23 Caryocorbula sarda X 5-24 Panopea parawhitfieldi X 5-25e27 Pholadomya sp. X 5-28&29 Hyotissa cf. H. guppyi X 5-30 Ostrea sp. X X 5-31&32 The Mexican amber has been interpreted to be the resinous transported to a shallow marine environment (Langenheim, 1995; exudates of Hymenea sp., a leguminose tree whose communities García-Villafuerte, 2008). An interesting specimen of Melongena developed near the ancient coast, in estuarine environments, very corona tzeltal new subspecies from the Mazantic Shale, has a piece similar to mangroves (Poinar, 1992). The amber was then of amber attached the adaperural portion of the shell (Fig. 3-1). It is Fig. 3. Mollusk shells associated to amber. 1, Melongena corona tzeltal new subspecies, specimen 10-461859, Los Pocitos, Mazantic Shale, under custody of Centro INAH-Chiapas (CONACULTA-INAH-MEX), image reproduction authorized by the Instituto