Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Cabullona Group (Campanian-Maastrichtian), northeastern Sonora. Synthesis for an excursion to the Cabullona Basin
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Abstract
The Cabullona Basin, located in northeastern Sonora, was formed as a crustal depression associated with the Cabullona fault, which in turn formed the Sierra Anibacachi-Cerro Cabullona uplift. Its sedimentary fill was assigned to the Cabullona Group by Taliaferro (1933), who also named the Camas Sandstone, Packard Shale and Lomas Coloradas Formation for the youngest part of the Group. Subsequently, González-León and Lawton (1995) recognized the El Cemento Conglomerate and the Corral de Enmedio formations. The sedimentary succession of the Cabullona Group reaches a minimum thickness of 4.5 km and consists of shales, sandstones, and conglomerates that were deposited in environments of alluvial fans, rivers, lakes, and deltas. A brief marine incursion is also represented in limestones of the Corral de Enmedio Formation. The age of the Cabullona Group, from Campanian to early Maastrichtian indicated by some of its fossils, coincides with the U-Pb age between 81.9 ± 0.7 to 69.8 ± 0.7 Ma obtained from isotopic dating of volcanic rocks interbedded in the sediments. The rocks of this group contain a diversity of fossil remains of terrestrial organisms that include dinosaurs, fish, turtles, lizards, crocodiles, plants (wood, leaf impressions, charophytes and pollen), bivalves, gastropods and, to a lesser extent, marine microfossils. According to the interpreted environments in which these sediments were deposited and the fossils they contain, it can be inferred that by the end of the Cretaceous Period, in this region of Sonora prevailed humid climates, large rivers and lakes, and an abundant vegetation that was able to support large-sized vertebrates, among which herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs stood out. This region was also located in a position close to the coasts of a sea that located to the east, covering much of northern Mexico.
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