Where: Tumbes, Peru (3.7° S, 80.7° W: paleocoordinates 4.9° S, 76.4° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Variegated Member (Zorritos Formation), Early/Lower Miocene (23.0 - 16.0 Ma)

• Stated as Early Miocene by Spieker (1922) and corroborated by more recent publications (e.g. see Higley 2004). Overlies the late Oligocene-early Miocene Heath Fm and underlies the Cardalitos Fm in Higley (2004) although Spieker (1922) uses varying lithostratigraphic nomenclature suggesting a "Talara Fm" overlies the upper member of the Zorritos Fm. Its is not clear whether definitions of these members has changed since Spieker. The variegated member of the Zorritos Fm is 310 ft thick and comprises claystone, oyster beds, and conglomeratic horizons.

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coastal; poorly lithified, green, red claystone and unlithified, argillaceous, sandy conglomerate

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the YPM

• Collected by J. Singewald, and with inspection of collections by E.T. Nelson (1870) at Yale University. Possibly also involved inspection of Grzybowski's material (Geol. Inst. of Cracow). Singewald's material is presumably reposited at Johns Hopkins.

Primary reference: E. M. Spieker. 1922. The Paleontology of the Zorritos Formation of the North Peruvian Oil Fields. The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Geology 3:1-196 [A. Miller/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 59000: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 05.03.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)