Loja shales (Miocene of Ecuador)

Where: Loja, Ecuador (4.0° S, 79.2° W: paleocoordinates 4.7° S, 76.2° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: San Cayetano Formation, Middle Miocene (16.0 - 11.6 Ma)

• The fossils are derived from the Siltstone Member, dated at 10.7 ± 1.6 to 10.0 ± 1.4 Ma (Hungerbühler et al., 2002).

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - large; shale

• Hungerbühler et al. (2002) also interpreted the quiet water facies of the San Cayetano Formation as a "fresh-water lake situated in a tropical environment at low elevation".
• One additional specimen was recovered from very fine lacustrine diatomitic shales in the San Cayetano Formation in the Loja Basin.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collection methods: Museum repository: Escuela Politec- nica Nacional del Ecuador (EPN)

Primary reference: R. J. Burnham and N. L. Carranco. 2004. Miocene winged fruits of Loxopterygium (Anacardiaceae) from the Ecuadorian Andes. American Journal of Botany 91(11):1767-1773 [C. Jaramillo/C. Martinez/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 136237: authorized by Carlos Jaramillo, entered by Camila Martinez on 24.11.2012

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Loxopterygium
  -
Loxopterygium laplayense Burnham and Carranco 2004
Fruit, EPN 504