Upper Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) cephalopods from the Parras Shale near Saucedas, Coahuila, Mexico

Abstract

72 specimens of ammonites and the nautilid Eutrephoceras, collected from the upper Cretaceous Parras Shale at Saucedas in southern Coahuila, Mexico, are here assigned to twelve genera and fourteen species. The assemblage represents three to four upper Campanian biozones reaching from the Western Interior lower upper Campanian Exiteloceras jenneyi to the uppermost Campanian Tethyan Nostoceras hyatti biozone. Eutrephoceras irritilasi and Trachyscaphites sp. are endemic taxa, while Baculites taylorensis is restricted to the northern Gulf of Mexico Coast and E. jenneyi, Oxybeloceras crassum and Solenoceras elegans are Western Interior Seaway elements. Didymoceras donezianum is a southern Euramerican species, while Bostrychoceras polyplocum and N. hyatti occur throughout lower and middle latitudes. Diplomoceras cylindraceum and Phyllopachyceras forbesianum are cosmopolitan taxa with their main occurrences in the Maastrichtian; their record at Saucedas is the oldest of these species in North America. A clear paleobiogeographic signal is identified in the upper Campanian ammonite assemblages at Saucedas by a change from restricted towards geographically widespread faunas. This suggests gradual disappearence of faunal barriers which separated the Gulf Coast from the rest of the world.