The Lagunitas Formation is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The open marine, fluvio-

deltaic A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarel ...

and

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s and conglomerates preserve

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

dating back to the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was prece ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

. Among others, the fossil primate '' Paralouatta marianae'', the largest primate of the Miocene New World, was found in the formation. Based on microfossils, the age has been determined as

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 annum, Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian (sta ...

Description

The type locality designated by Popov is a small outcrop located east of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, on the highway linking Trinidad and Banao. The youngest lithostratigraphic unit overlain by Lagunitas is the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

Las Cuevas Formation in the

type section A stratotype or type section in geology is the physical location or outcrop of a particular reference exposure of a stratigraphic sequence or stratigraphic boundary. If the stratigraphic unit is layered, it is called a stratotype, whereas the stan ...

. Lagunitas is in turn overlain by the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...

Güines Formation and younger sediments.MacPhee et al., 2003, p.6

Regional correlation

Partial temporal and lithological equivalents of the Lagunitas Formation situated elsewhere in Cuba include the Arabos, Paso Real,

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

and Magantilla Formations. In

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, the formation can be roughly correlated in age and lithology with the Maissade and Yanigua Formations. In

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

the most similar unit is the Cibao Formation.MacPhee et al., 2003, p.7

Vertebrate fossil content

* ''

Hemipristis serra ''Hemipristis serra'' is an extinct species of weasel shark which existed during the Miocene epoch. It was described by Louis Agassiz in 1843. While today's snaggletooth shark is not very large or dangerous, ''Hemipristis serra'', which lived ...

''Iturralde Vinent et al., 1996, p.20 * ''

Imagocnus zazae ''Imagocnus'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth from the Early Miocene (Burdigalian) Lagunitas Formation, Cuba, Lagunitas Formation of Cuba. Description This sloth resided in the Antilles and showed a range of body size, from ''Parocnus''-s ...

''MacPhee et al., 2003, p.4 * '' Negaprion brevirostris''Iturralde Vinent et al., 1996, p.21 * '' Paralouatta marianae'' * '' Sphyrna mokarran'' * '' Zazamys veronicae'' * '' Metaxytherium sp.'' * '' Myliobatis sp.'' * Odontoceti indet. * Pelomedusoides indet.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{cite LSA , last=MacPhee , first=R.D.E. , last2=M.A. , first2=Iturralde Vinent , last3=Gaffney , first3=E.S. , year=2003 , title=Domo de Zaza, an Early Miocene vertebrate locality in south-central Cuba, with notes on the tectonic evolution of Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage , url=http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/2820//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/nov/N3394.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y , journal=

American Museum Novitates ''American Museum Novitates'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Museum of Natural History. It was established in 1921. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2013 impact factor The impact f ...

, volume=3394 , pages=1–42 , accessdate=2019-02-06 Geologic formations of Cuba Neogene Cuba Burdigalian Hemingfordian Paleontology in Cuba Shale formations Limestone formations Conglomerate formations Deltaic deposits Fluvial deposits Open marine deposits Lagoonal deposits

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

Description

Regional correlation

Vertebrate fossil content

See also

References

Bibliography