Re #1193 - Cantaure Formation (Miocene of Venezuela)

Where: Falcon, Venezuela (11.9° N, 69.8° W: paleocoordinates 11.2° N, 66.6° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Cantaure Formation, Burdigalian (20.4 - 16.0 Ma)

• Clays, sandstone, and limestones of up to 75, thick, although no single section is completely exposed. Collection apparently derived from near middle part of that thickness. Overlies unconformably Cretaceous rocks and is conformably overlain by limestones on middle to upper Miocene. Jung (1965) regarded the collection as early Middle Miocene, though more recent authors, including Vermeij (2001) indicate an Early Miocene (Burdigalian) age. Formation formerly referred to as "Cerro Pelado".

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coastal; unlithified, micaceous, shelly/skeletal, silty claystone

• Tropical shallow-water assemblage, neritic, no deep-water genera present, normal salinity, perhaps nearby brackish source.
• Clay, massive, micaceous, slightly silty, and locally containing abundant fossils.

Size class: macrofossils

Reposited in the BMNH, NMB, PRI, USNM

Collection methods: quarrying,

• All material is reposited in the Natural History Museum (NMB), Basel, Switzerland, with some voucher specimens in the British Museum, PRI, and USNM.

Primary reference: P. Jung. 1965. Miocene Mollusca from the Paraguana Peninsula, Venezuela. Bulletins of American Paleontology 49(223):389-652 [A. Miller/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 60709: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 20.05.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Exhaustive for Bivalvia and Gastropoda. Balanus, corals, numerous otoliths, and Calianassa fragments are commonly found, though not listed.
Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
Turritella cocoditana Hodson 1926 turret shell
 Neogastropoda - Mitridae
 Neogastropoda - Buccinidae
Cymatophos paraguanensis Hodson and Hodson 1931 true whelk
 Neogastropoda - Borsoniidae
"Borsonia (Paraborsonia) cantaurana" = Paraborsonia
"Borsonia (Paraborsonia) cantaurana" = Paraborsonia snail
 Neogastropoda - Costellariidae
"Knefastia aff. lavinoides" = Knefastia limonensis, Fusiturricula cf. jaquensis
"Knefastia aff. lavinoides" = Knefastia limonensis Olsson 1922 ribbed mitre
Fusiturricula cf. jaquensis Sowerby 1850 ribbed mitre
 Neogastropoda - Marginellidae
Prunum (Prunum) quirosense Hodson 1927 margin shell
 Neogastropoda - Muricidae
"Typhis (Laevityphis) sawkinsi" = Siphonochelus (Laevityphis) sawkinsi
"Typhis (Laevityphis) sawkinsi" = Siphonochelus (Laevityphis) sawkinsi Mansfield 1925 murex snail
 Heterostropha - Pyramidellidae
Bivalvia
 Ostreida - Ostreidae
Ostrea cf. portoricoensis Hubbard 1920 oyster