Dynamics of Late Cretaceous Rocky Shores (Rosario Formation) from Baja California, Mexico

Abstract

Two rocky-shore deposits are described at localities of Late Cretaceous age in Baja California, Mexico. The main locality, at Las Minas, is characterized by a carbonate matrix containing clasts derived from an underlying andesite flow. Basal boulders give way up section to smaller cobbles and silt, indicating a transgression. The biotas from the sites include encrusting forms (coralline algae, bryozoans, serpulids, ostreids, spondylids), pholadid bivalve borings, and several nestling and mobile taxa. The well exposed boulder zone contains clusters of nestling pectinids preserved in growth position. This is the first such observation from an ancient rocky shore. Echinoids also lived within the relatively stable boulder interstices. Rocky-shore biotas of Late Cretaceous age from around the world contain many elements in common, including large encrusting oysters, spondylids, serpulids, rhynconellid brachiopods, and echinoids. Other groups common to rocky shores today are found at only some Cretaceous localities (e.g., barnacles, trochid and cerithiid gastropods, limpets, chitons). More archaic taxa, such as crinoids and large inarticulate brachiopods, are rarely represented at the known Cretaceous localities. Reconstructions of the biotas of ancient rocky shores offer a new avenue for the study of evolution on hard substrates. As the number and quality of described rocky-shore localitiesmore » increases, it will be possible to put into a broader context evolutionary trends derived strictly from hard-grounds or other hard-substrate types.« less