Vertebrate fossils from the San José de Gracia quarry, a new Late Cretaceous marine fossil site in Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

The San José de Gracia Quarry, located within the Municipality of Molcaxac, southern Puebla, Mexico, is a new paleontological site discovered about a decade ago. This paper is the first formal scientific contribution of this site. The quarry occupies an area no larger than the two hectares that is exploited for commercial purposes, where slabs are extracted from a marine sequence of cream-brown strata of poorly carbonated clays, with centimetric thickness. Although the upper and lower limits of this sequence are not known; the characteristic lithology and fossil content do not correspond with those of the regional geological units previously reported. Although the fossil association recovered from the San José de Gracia Quarry is composed mostly of fish remains; it also contains ammonites, belemnites, inoceramids, indeterminate ostreids, reptiles and few plant remains. In this work, the first fossil fish remains from this locality are described, including representatives of Enchodus and clupeid both previously known from Mexico; as well as the first record of Dercetis and Xenyllion from this country. In addition, a yaguarasaurine mosasaur is also reported. Based on its fossil content and its lithology, the fossil-bearing strata of the San José de Gracia quarry can be possibly referred to the Mexcala Formation (Morelos-Guerrero Basin) of Turonian age.

Offshore marine actinopterygian assemblages from the Maastrichtian–Paleogene of the Pindos Unit in Eurytania, Greece

“…Clupeomorphs are known since the Early Cretaceous ( De Figuereido, 2009 ). Aside from some fragmentary and questionably interpreted material from the Campanian–Maastrichtian of Nardò, Italy ( Taverne, 2004 ; Taverne, 2007 ; see criticism in Marramà & Carnevale (2015a , 2018 ), the earliest known clupeids come from the Turonian ( Alvarado-Ortega et al, 2020 ), followed by findings from the Paleocene of Mexico ( Alvarado-Ortega et al, 2015 ). They became common components of Eocene and younger Tethyan ichthyofaunas ( Grande, 1985 ; Jerzmańska, 1991 ; Marramà & Carnevale, 2015a , 2015b , 2018 ).…”

A new Cenomanian acanthomorph fish from the El Chango quarry (Chiapas, south‐eastern Mexico) and its implications for the early diversification and evolutionary trends of acanthopterygians

“…2000); and a species of the genus † Xenyllion (Order †Sphenocephaliformes), from San Jose de Gracia quarry, Molcaxac, both in Puebla State (Alvarado‐Ortega et al . 2020a), have also been described. The new fossil species here described is distinguished from pseudomonocentridids and † Dalgoichthys tropicalis by the absence of dorsal plates over the body, and from † Muhichthys cordobai by the number of dorsal fin spines, vertebrae and anal fin soft rays, among other features (González‐Rodríguez & Fielitz 2008).…”

“…2013, 2016; Alvarado‐Ortega et al . 2019, 2020a, b). However, the phylogenetic impact of these findings has not yet been fully explored.…”

A long snout enchodontid fish (Aulopiformes: Enchodontidae) from the Early Cretaceous deposits at the El Chango quarry, Chiapas, southeastern Mexico: A multi-approach study

“…The first report of enchodontids from Mexico dates back to the 1950s when Maldonado-Koerdell (1956) found remains of these fishes in Turonian limestones exploited in Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, and inside a rocky core drilled near San José de las Rusias, Tamaulipas. In addition, these fishes have been reported from other sites including the Vallecillo quarry (Nuevo León), the Arroyo Las Bocas (Guerrero), the San Jose de Gracia quarry (Puebla), as well as the Las Boquillas, La Mula, Los Pilotes, and Venustiano Carranza quarries (Coahuila), the El Chango quarry and Tzimol (Chiapas), and the Muhi quarry (Hidalgo) (Blanco-Piñón, 1998;González-Barba and Espinosa-Chávez, 2005;Alvarado-Ortega et al, 2006aand b, 2009, 2020aGiersch et al, 2008;Fielitz and González-Rodríguez, 2010;Porras-Múzquiz and Alvarado-Ortega, 2011;Carbot-Chanona and Than-Marchese, 2013;Romero-García, 2013;Giersch, 2014;Díaz-Cruz et al, 2016Alvarado-Ortega, 2017, 2018;among others). The nominal species of the Mexican enchodontids already described are noticeable, because they represent the most ancient record of this group in America, usually include relatively complete and well-preserved fossils, and are among the oldest enchodontids so far known from the Middle East and North Africa regions (Díaz-Cruz et al, 2019a-c).…”