High-precision U–Pb geochronology and a new chronostratigraphy for the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Chubut, central Patagonia: Implications for terrestrial faunal and floral evolution in Jurassic

Abstract

The fluvial, lacustrine and tuffaceous sedimentary succession of the Cañadón Asfalto continental basin exposed in the Argentinean Chubut Province of central Patagonia preserves an extraordinary record of Jurassic fauna and flora that marks key events in the evolution of Dinosauria, early mammals and major South American plant groups. However, basin-wide correlation of the fossiliferous units is complicated by fault displacements, unconformities and repetitive lithofacies. New U–Pb analyses of zircon (CA-TIMS method) from five primary tuff beds interstratified with the lacustrine strata establish a new chronostratigraphic framework for the sedimentary and volcanic units of Cañadón Asfalto Basin, constraining ca. 33m.y. of depositional history and biotic evolution that spans nearly all three epochs of the Jurassic. Five major vertebrate- and plant-rich stratigraphic intervals have been identified, and are being actively investigated, that range in age from Pliensbachian to Kimmeridgian (or younger). Our combined biostratigraphic and high-precision geochronologic results indicate that the major faunal turnover of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs which led to the rise of the eusauropods took place in the Early Jurassic, earlier than previously recognized. Similarly, the first successful radiation of the ornithischian dinosaurs (heterodontosaurids), as well as the evolutionary diversifications of the araucarian conifers and the osmundaceous ferns, all occurred before the end of the Early Jurassic. The diverse palynofloral assemblage of the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation that was once considered to be early Cretaceous in age, is now entirely constrained to the Late Jurassic.