La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation

The La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation, also called as La Pedrera de Meià^[1][2] is an Early Cretaceous (late Berriasian to early Barremian geologic formation in Catalonia, Spain. The formation crops out in the area of the Montsec in the Organyà Basin. At the La Pedrera de Meià locality, the formation consists of rhythmically laminated, lithographic limestones that formed in the distal areas of a large, shallow coastal lake.^[3] It is noted for the exceptional preservation of articulated small vertebrates and insects, similar to that of the Solnhofen Limestone.

La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation
Stratigraphic range: Late Berriasian-early Barremian ~140–125 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Exposure of the La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation at La Pedrera de Meià
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Montsec Group
Underlies	Prada Formation
Area	Montsec
Lithology
Primary	Limestone
Location
Coordinates	42.0°N 0.9°E / 42.0; 0.9
Approximate paleocoordinates	31.3°N 11.3°E / 31.3; 11.3
Region	Lérida Province, Catalonia
Country	Spain
Extent	Pre-Pyrenees
La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation (Spain) Show map of Spain La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation (Province of Lleida) Show map of Province of Lleida

Fossil content

The La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation has yielded the enantiornithine bird Noguerornis and the scincogekkomorph lizard Pedrerasaurus,^[4][5][6][7] and two species of Teiid lizard Meyasaurus, M. fauri and M. crusafonti, the indeterminate avialan Ilerdopteryx,^[8] frogs Neusibatrachus wilferti,^[9] and Montsechobatrachus. A crocodyliform Montsecosuchus and many insects and other arthropods, as:^[10]

• Angarosphex lithographicu
• Archisphex catalunicus
• Artitocoblatta hispanica
• Chalicoridulum montsecensis
• Chrysobothris ballae
• Cionocoleus longicapitis
• Condalia woottoni
• Cretephialtites pedrerae
• Hirmoneura (Eohirmoneura) neli
• Hirmoneura richterae
• Iberoraphidia dividua
• Ilerdocossus pulcherrima
• Ilerdosphex wenzae
• Jarzembowskia edmundi
• Leridatoma pulcherrima
• Manlaya lacabrua
• Meiagaster cretaceus
• Meiatermes bertrani
• Mesoblattina colominasi
• Mesopalingea lerida
• Mimamontsecia cretacea
• Montsecbelus solutus
• Nanoraphidia lithographica
• Nogueroblatta fontllongae
• N. nana
• Pachypsyche vidali
• Pompilopterus montsecensis
• Proraphidia gomezi
• Prosyntexis montsecensis
• Pseudochrysobothris ballae
• Ptiolinites almuthae
• Vitisma occidentalis
• Cretaholocompsa montsecana
• Montsecosphex jarzembowskii
• Cretobestiola hispanica
• Angarosphex penyalveri
• Cretoserphus gomezi
• Bolbonectus lithographicus
• ?Anaglyphites pluricavus
• Palaeaeschna vidali
• Hispanochlorogomphus rossi
• Palaeouloborus lacasae
• Ichthyemidion vivaldi

Correlation

Early Cretaceous stratigraphy of Iberia

Ma	Age	Paleomap \ Basins	Cantabrian	Olanyà	Cameros	Maestrazgo	Oliete	Galve	Morella	South Iberian	Pre-betic	Lusitanian
100	Cenomanian		La Cabana	Sopeira	Utrillas		Mosquerela					Caranguejeira
			Altamira		Utrillas
			Eguino
125	Albian		Ullaga - Balmaseda	Lluçà						Traiguera
			Monte Grande		Escucha		Escucha			Jijona
			Itxina - Miono
	Aptian		Valmaseda - Tellamendi		Ol Gp. - Castrillo	Benassal		Benassal				Olhos
				Font	En Gp. - Leza	Morella/Oliete	Oliete	Villaroya	Morella	Capas Rojas		Almargem
			Patrocinio - Ernaga	Senyús	En Gp. - Jubela	Forcall				Villaroya	Upper Bedoulian	Figueira
	Barremian		Vega de Pas	Cabó	Abejar	Xert	Alacón	Xert		Huérguina		Assises
				Prada		Artoles				Collado	Moutonianum	Papo Seco
				Rúbies	Tera Gp. - Golmayo	Alacón/Blesa	Blesa	Camarillas	Mirambel
150	Hauterivian				Ur Gp. - Pinilla	Llacova		Castellar	Tera Gp. - Pinilla	Villares		Porto da Calada
							hiatus
						Huerva			Gaita
	Valanginian		Villaro		Ur Gp. - Larriba				Ped Gp. - Hortigüela
					Ped Gp. - Hortigüela				Ped Gp. - Piedrahita
					Peñacoba			Galve		Miravetes
	Berriasian		Cab Gp. - Arcera		Valdeprado	hiatus		Alfambra
					TdL Gp. - Rupelo			Arzobispo	hiatus	Tollo
					On Gp. - Huérteles Sierra Matute
	Tithonian		Lastres		Tera Gp. - Magaña		Higuereles			Tera Gp. - Magaña		Lourinhã
									Arzobispo
					Ágreda
Legend		Major fossiliferous, oofossiliferous, ichnofossiliferous, coproliferous, minor formation
Sources

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
  • List of stratigraphic units with few dinosaur genera
• Tremp Formation
• Baltic, Burmese, Dominican, Mexican amber

References

1. Gil-Delgado, Alejandro; Delclòs, Xavier; Sellés, Albert; Galobart, Àngel; Oms, Oriol (2023-04-17). "The Early Cretaceous coastal lake Konservat-Lagerstätte of La Pedrera de Meià (Southern Pyrenees)". Geologica Acta. 21: 1–XIII. doi:10.1344/GeologicaActa2023.21.3. hdl:2445/201820. ISSN 1696-5728.
2. Galobart, Àngel; Párraga, Javier; Gil-Delgado, Alejandro (2022-02-25). "The Spread of Fossil heritage: How to Valorise the Lithographic Limestones of the La Pedrera de Meià and La Cabroa Quarries in the Orígens Unesco Global Geopark (Southern Pyrenees, Catalonia)". Geoheritage. 14 (1). doi:10.1007/s12371-022-00669-w. ISSN 1867-2477.
3. "La Pedrera de Meià". Paleobiology Database.
4. Weishampel et al., 2004, pp. 517-607
5. Lacasa Ruiz, 1989
6. Chiappé & Lacasa Ruiz, 2002
7. Bolet & Evans, 2010
8. Kellner, 2002
9. Báez & Sanchiz, 2007, p.477
10. La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation at Fossilworks.org

Bibliography

• Bolet, A.; Evans, S.E. (2010), "A new lizard from the Early Cretaceous of Catalonia (Spain), and the Mesozoic lizards of the Iberian Peninsula", Cretaceous Research, 31 (4): 447–457, doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.06.002
• Báez, A.M.; Sanchiz, B. (2007), "A review of Neusibatrachus wilferti, an Early Cretaceous frog from the Montsec Range, northeastern Spain", Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 52: 477–487, retrieved 2019-10-09
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (2004), The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–880, ISBN 0-520-24209-2, retrieved 2019-02-21
• Chiappé, L.; Lacasa Ruiz, A. (2002), Noguerornis gonzalezi (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from the Early Cretaceous of Spain in Chiappe and Witmer, (eds.). Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs, University of California Press, pp. 230–239
• Kellner, A (2002), A review of avian Mesozoic fossil feathers in Chiappé and Witmer, (eds.). Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs, University of California Press, pp. 389–404
• Lacasa Ruiz, A (1989), "New genus of fossil bird from the Neocomian locality of Montsec (Lerida province, Spain)", Estudios Geológicos, 45: 417–425

Further reading

• A. P. Rasnitsyn and J. Ansorge. 2000. Two new Lower Cretaceous hymenopterous insects (Insecta: Hymenoptera) from Sierra del Montsec, Spain. Acta Geológica Hispánica 35:59-64
• X. Martínez-Delclòs. 1993. Blátidos (Insecta, Blattodea) del Cretácico Inferior de España. Familias Mesoblattinidae, Blattulidae y Poliphagidae. Boletín Geológico y Minero 104:516-538
• X. Martínez-Delclòs. 1990. Insectos del Cretácico inferior de Santa Maria de Meià (Lleida): colleción Lluís Marià Vidal i Carreras. Treballs del Museu de Geologia de Barcelona 1:91-116
• P. E. S. Whalley and E. A. Jarzembowski. 1985. Fossil insects from the Lithographic Limestone Montsech (Late Jurassic-early Cretaceous), Lérida Province, Spain. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Geology) 38(5):381-412
• J. E. Gomez Pallerola. 1979. Un ave y otras especies fósiles nuevas de la biofacies de Santa María de Meyá (Lérida). Boletín Geológico y Minero 90:333-346