Talara Shale, Talara Fm - Quebrada Barrancas (Eocene of Peru)

Where: Piura, Peru (4.5° S, 81.3° W: paleocoordinates 12.3° S, 109.9° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Talara Shale Member (Talara Formation), Bartonian (41.3 - 38.0 Ma)

• Regarded as lower Upper Eocene on the basis of faunal similarity. Foraminifera suggest an upper Eocene age. Olsson states that the Talara and Saman rocks can be referred to the Upper Eocene and in terms of the European section, to the Bartonian and Ludian.....respectively? In most places the Talara Formation can be divided into three members, a lower shale (Talara Shale), a middle sandstone (Talara Sandstone), and an upper shale (Pozo Shale). In a complete section the Talara Formation has an average thickness of about 2800 ft. Collection is from lower Talara Shale.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; lithified, gray, cherty/siliceous shale

• Appears to be deeper shelfal siliciclastic environment judging from faunal composition.
• Principally dark-colored or gray shales, hard, cherty.

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: quarrying,

• No museum repositories are reported, but material may presumably be the AMNH of PRI collections. Because of uncertaintly this field is left ommited.

Primary reference: A. A. Olsson. 1930. Contributions to the Tertiary Paleontology of Northern Peru: Part 3, Eocene Mollusca. Bulletins of American Paleontology 17(62):1-164 [A. Miller/A. Hendy/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 52554: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 10.08.2005

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Exhaustive for Mollusca.
Bivalvia
 Nuculanida - Nuculanidae
Leda (Ledina) barranca n. sp. Olsson 1930 pointed nut clam
 Nuculida - Nuculidae
Nucula catalina n. sp. Olsson 1930 nut clam
Scaphopoda
 Dentaliida - Dentaliidae
Dentalium mancorens Olsson 1930 tusk shell
Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Aturiidae
Aturia alabamensis Morton 1834
Subspecies: Aturia alabamensis peruviana