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Journal of Paleontology

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A NEW NEAR-SHORE MARINE FAUNA AND FLORA FROM THE EARLY NEOGENE OF NORTHWESTERN VENEZUELA

¹ Universität Tübingen, Spezielle Zoologie, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, D-72076, Germany marcelo.sanchez{at}uni-tuebingen.de
² Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109-1079, USA,
³ Department of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599-3315, USA,
⁴ Department of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA,
⁵ Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA,
⁶ Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3170, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA,
⁷ Centro de Excursionismo Científico del Estado Lara, Barquisimeto, Venezuela,
⁸ Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 20560, USA,
⁹ NEOUCOM—Anatomy, 4209 State Route 44, P.O. Box 95, Rootstown, Ohio 44272, USA

A diverse near-shore marine fauna existed during the early Miocene in what is today an arid inland region about 90 km south of the Caribbean coast of northern Venezuela, a poorly known area geologically and paleontologically. The fossil locality consists of more than 100 m of section exposed in an area of about 1 km². We report the discovery of 20 molluscan species, one crab (Portunus oblongus), at least three sharks (Hemipristis serra and Carcharhinus spp.), one turtle ("Podocnemis" venezuelensis), one crocodile (Crocodylidae), two whales (Odontoceti) and a three dimensional cast of the mesocarp or endocarp of a palm fruit. Several taxa are reported for the first time in Venezuela or in northern South America. The fauna indicates, or at least is consistent with, an early Miocene age for the locality, and a near-shore and shallow water marine depositional environment. We suggest that the earliest mammal previously reported from Venezuela, the pyrothere Proticia venezuelensis, was collected in Miocene rocks of the Castillo Formation instead of Eocene rocks of the Trujillo Formation.

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