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Author's personal copy Cretaceous Research 34 (2012) 257e267 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Cretaceous Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/CretRes First report of Hadrosia Cooper, 1983 in South America and its biostratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical implications Mena Schemm-Gregory a,b,*, Alexis Rojas-Briceño a, Pedro Patarroyo c, Carlos Jaramillo a a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Panama City, Panama b Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Paläozoologie II, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany c Departamento de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Cr. 30 N. 45-03 or A. A. 14490, Bogotá, Colombia article info abstract Article history: A new terebratulid species, Hadrosia gracilis, from the Lower Cretaceous Rosablanca Formation in Central Received 9 December 2010 Colombia is described. The new method of three-dimensional reconstructions of the internal morphology Accepted in revised form 9 November 2011 of this taxon results in the subjective synonymization of the Nerthebrochinae in favour of the Available online 17 November 2011 Sellithyridinae. The geographical distribution of species of Hadrosia in South America and Western Europe is a further argument for a direct pathway between these two regions during Early Cretaceous time. Keywords: Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Terebratulida Brachiopoda Rosablanca Formation Lower Cretaceous Colombia 1. Introduction description of the majority of the pre-Barremian fossil content using modern palaeontological techniques is still lacking. In the eastern Andes of Colombia there are extensive outcrops of This paper is one of a series on the Cretaceous brachiopods from a shallow marine, Lower Cretaceous sedimentary sequence consist- Colombia that we have carried out. Our data will help to establish ing of more than 1000 m of carbonate and siliciclastic rocks. Up to the history of Cretaceous brachiopod species, their evolution within now, most of these outcrops have only been described in the the Andean region, and their relationship to southern Tethyan framework of petroleum exploration (e.g., Cooper et al., 1995). faunas. The taxonomic information recorded as a result of these However, detailed studies of the lithology and certain fossil groups studies will elucidate the biogeographic history of the Andean with main focus on ammonites have been carried out during the past region and help to interpret the structure and palaeoecology of its half century (e.g., Bürgl, 1956; Etayo-Serna, 1964, 1968a, b, 1979; marine communities. Patarroyo, 2000a, b, 2004; Bogdanova and Hoedemaeker, 2004; Sharikadze et al., 2004). Further fossil groups considered are bivalves (e.g., Dietrich,1938; Villamil,1996), crustaceans (e.g., Feldmann et al., 2. Geological settings and previous research 1999; Feldmann and Villamil, 2002; Vega et al., 2007, 2010), vertebrates (Langston et al.,1955; Hernandéz-Camacho and De Porta, 2.1. Geological settings 1963; Páramo, 1994, 1997, 2000; Cadena and Gaffney, 2005; Ezcurra, 2009), and plants (Huertas, 1967, 1970, 1976; Waveren et al., 2002; The basal calcareous rocks of the Cretaceous in Colombia are Correa et al., 2010). With exception of testudines and decapod crus- present in the Middle Magdalena Valley, including the Villa de taceans (Cadena and Gaffney, 2005), however, a substantial Leyva area. They are represented mainly by the Rosablanca Formation (Morales et al., 1958; Etayo-Serna, 1968a, b; Rámon et al., 2001). The studied locality of the Rosablanca Formation is situated near the “la Fábrica” cave south of the town of Santa Sofia, northern * Corresponding author. Present address: Centro de Geosciências e Departamento Boyacá Province, central Colombia (Fig. 1). de Ciências da Terra da Universidade de Coimbra, Largo Marquês de Pombal The Rosablanca Formation is described as a black micritic and 3000-272, Portugal. Tel.: þ351 239 860 571; fax: þ351 239 860 501. almost pure limestone sequence with a small percentage of clastic E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M. Schemm-Gregory), [email protected] (A. Rojas-Briceño), [email protected]. components leading into grainstones and evaporites (Morales et al., co (P. Patarroyo), [email protected] (C. Jaramillo). 1958). In the study area the Rosablanca Formation is conformably 0195-6671/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2011.11.005 Author's personal copy 258 M. Schemm-Gregory et al. / Cretaceous Research 34 (2012) 257e267 Fig. 1. Map of the study area with collecting locality indicated. overlain by quartz siltstones of the Ritoque Formation (Etayo-Serna, 1968a, b; Ballesteros and Nivia, 1985; Patarroyo, 1997b, 2009). Cardozo and Ramirez (1985) described in detail the lithostratigraphy of the Rosablanca Formation in the Ayal Creek at Santa Sofía. At this section the formation consists of a lower sequence of 20 m of mudstones, muddy sandstones, and grainstones followed by 103 m of micritic, biomicritic and calcareous mudstones, calcareous sand- Fig. 2. Stratigraphic column for the Lower Cretaceous in Colombia. stones, and dolomitized micrites. Specimens of Hadrosia occur in beds of calcareous mudstones at the top of the Rosablanca Forma- central basin to the north where the Rosablanca Formation deposits tion; according to Cardozo and Ramirez (1985), between 10 and are younger (e.g., Morales et al., 1958; Patarroyo, 1997b). 12 m below the onset of the overlying Ritoque Formation (Fig. 2). The sedimentary environment of the Rosablanca Formation is 2.2. Studies on Colombian brachiopods interpreted as a broad carbonate platform (Morales et al., 1958; Rámon et al., 2001). The dark to medium grey colour of the beds The oldest brachiopods of Colombia were reported by bearing Hadrosia indicates lowered oxygen levels with a relatively Harrington and Kay (1951) from the CambrianeOrdovician deposits high supply of organic material (Pedersen and Calvert, 1990). in the Macarena Range without accurate stratigraphic location. Cardozo and Ramirez (1985) reported Chondrites and Thalassinoides Mojica et al. (1988) reported graptolites and some brachiopods in the Upper Rosablanca Formation in Santa Sofía, which argues for from the Middle Ordovician Hígado Formation in Tarqui, Huila local niches of more oxygenated conditions. They interpreted these Province. Bogotá (1982) and Thery et al. (1984) described strata as subtidal deposits adjacent to a tidal flat environment. In his brachiopods and indeterminate impressions that we, in accordance study on Cretaceous bivalves from Zapatoca, Santander Province, with the authors, consider to be brachiopod remains in Ordovician central Colombia, Dietrich (1938) described the brachiopod genus sediments of the Colombian Amazon Basin. Sellithyris as frequently found in “calizas margosas” or muddy The most important work on Palaeozoic brachiopods is limestones, but gave no further sedimentological information. undoubtedly the monograph by Caster (1939) on brachiopods from According to new ammonite data near Villa de Leyva (e.g., the Devonian EmsianeEifelian Floresta Formation exposed near the Karakaschiceras Thieuloy, 1971, Raimondiceras Spath, 1924) strata of village of Floresta, central Colombia (see also Barret, 1988). the Rosablanca Formation are assigned to the Valanginian Stage. Recently, Janvier and Villarroel (2000) and Moreno (2004) However elsewhere, the uppermost part of the Rosablanca described lingulid brachiopods from this unit. Formation is referred to the Hauterivian (Haas, 1960; Guzman, Carboniferous brachiopods from Colombia, which are found in 1985) or HauterivianeBarremian (Patarroyo, 1997a) near Zapatoca strata of the Garzon, Quetame, and Santander Massif (Trumpy, 1943; or questionably lower Hauterivian (e.g., Acanthodiscus Uhlig, 1905) Olsson, 1956), have been studied by various authors: e.g., Gerth near Villa de Leyva, Boyacá Province. (1932), Kehrer (1933), Royo (1945), Stibane and Forero (1969),and The upper diachronous boundary of this lithostratigraphic unit Angiolini et al. (2003). Mojica et al. (1988) recorded brachiopods from is known because of a progressive transgressive event from the the same time interval, but without any specificdeterminations. Author's personal copy M. Schemm-Gregory et al. / Cretaceous Research 34 (2012) 257e267 259 Mesozoic brachiopods from Colombia have been poorly studied Therefore, we suggest that Hadrosia gracilis sp. nov. is a possible index hitherto. Several authors (e.g., Geyer, 1973; Stibane, 1976; Sandy, fossil for the upper part of the Valanginian Stage in this region. 1990, 1991a, b) showed that some marine, almost unfossiliferous sediments of Palaeozoic to Jurassic age were misplaced for many 3.2. Palaeobiogeographical value years in the “red beds of Colombia”. Cretaceous brachiopods described so far include the terebratulids Arenaciarcula beaumonti Owing to the lack of modern palaeontological studies, (d’Archiac, 1847) and Gemmarcula cf. menardi (Lamarck, 1819), a consensus biogeographical interpretation of the Early Cretaceous stored in the d’Orbigny Collection in Paris, as well as Musculina aff. of Colombia is still lacking (Hoedemaeker, 2004). sanctaecrucis (Catzigras, 1948)(Guzman, 1985). Representatives of On a global scale, taxa of the Sellithyrididae have been used to Sellithyris sella (Sowerby, 1823) from Zapatoca were reported by interpret the palaeobiogeography and faunal relationships among d’Orbigny (1851), Karsten (1858, 1886), and Dietrich