Santa Maria Formation

Santa Maria Formation Stratigraphic range: Upper Triassic and Middle Triassic
Santa Maria Formation. Source: UFSM
Type	Geological formation
Location
Coordinates	-29.695042, -53.795403
Region	Paleorrota  Rio Grande do Sul
Country	Brazil
Geopark of Paleorrota

The Santa Maria Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It has a late Ladinian – early Carnian age (Middle – Upper Triassic), and is notable for its fossils of early dinosaurs, including the herrerasaur Staurikosaurus, the basal saurischian Teyuwasu, and the basal sauropodomorph Saturnalia.^[1] It received this name because it was discovered first in the city of Santa Maria.

The distinguished English paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward determined the age of Santa Maria Formation dated Mesozoic Era, Upper Triassic period (about 220 million years).

The Santa Maria Formation is in the geopark of Paleorrota. ^{[2] [3]}

Fauna

Vertebrates

An unnamed prosauropod species is present in Rio Grande do Sul.^[1]

Vertebrates reported from the Santa Maria Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Belesodon[4]		Rio Grande do Sul.[1]			A synapsid.	Staurikosaurus
Candelariodon[5]	C. barberenai[5]	Rio Grande do Sul.[5]		A partial mandible having some complete teeth.[5]	A cynodont.[5]
Chanaresuchus[6]	C. bonapartei[6]	Rio Grande do Sul.[6]		Disarticulated cranial and postcranial elements.[6]	A proterochampsian.[6]
Pampadromaeus[7]	P. barberenai[7]	Rio Grande do Sul.[7]	Upper (Alemoa Member)[7]	"ULBRA-PVT016, disarticulated partial skeleton... including most skull bones"[7]	A basal sauropodomorph dinosaur.
Polesinesuchus[8]	P. aurelioi[8]				An aetosaur.[8]
Santacruzodon[9]	S. hopsoni[9]	Rio Grande do Sul.[9]		Cranial remains.[9]	A traversodontid cynodont.[9]
Saturnalia[1]	S. tupinquim[1]	Rio Grande do Sul.[1]	Upper (Alemoa Member)[10]	"[Three] partial skeletons, dentary, adult."[11][12]	A basal sauropodomorph dinosaur.
Spondylosoma[1]	S. absconditum[1]	Rio Grande do Sul.[1]	Lower[11]	"Various postcranial remains."[11]	Might not be dinosaurian.[1]
Staurikosaurus[1]	S. pricei[1]	Rio Grande do Sul.[1]	Upper (Alemoa Member)[11]	"Partial postcranial skeleton with mandible."[11]	A herrerasaurid dinosaur.
Teyuwasu[1]	T. barbarenai[1]	Rio Grande do Sul.[1]	Upper (Alemoa Member)	"Right femur and tibia."[11]	Might not be dinosaurian.[1]
Trucidocynodon	T. riograndensis				A synapsid.

Formations

Mata

Santa Maria

São
Pedro

São Sepé

Cachoeira

Candelária

Rio Pardo

Santa Cruz

Venâncio

Aceguá

Alegrete

Bagé

Rosário

São Gabriel

Caçapava

Geological formations in Rio Grande do Sul:
1) Serra Geral Formation, Cretaceous. 2) Botucatu Formation, Cretaceous. 3) Guará Formation, Jurassic. 4) Santa Maria Formation e Caturrita Formation, Triassic. 5) Sanga do Cabral Formation, Triassic. 6) Piramboia Formation, Permian. 7) Itararé Group, Permian.

 

See also

• Paleorrota
• Caturrita Formation
• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations

Footnotes

1. Weishampel, David B; et al (2004). "Dinosaur distribution (Late Triassic, South America)." In: Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 527–528. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.
2. Formação Santa Maria, (in Portuguese)
3. Paleoformações, (in Portuguese)
4. Romer, A. S. The Brazilian cynodont reptiles Belesodon and Chiniquodon. Breviora, 1969a, 332, 1–16. Online: Biodiversity Heritage Library
5. Téo Veiga De Oliveira, Cesar Leandro Schultz, Marina Bento Soares and Carlos Nunes Rodrigues (2011). "A new carnivorous cynodont (Synapsida, Therapsida) from the Brazilian Middle Triassic (Santa Maria Formation): Candelariodon barberenai gen. et sp. nov." (PDF). Zootaxa 3027: 19–28. ISSN 1175-5334.
6. Tiago Raugust, Marcel Lacerda and Cesar Leandro Schultz (in press). "The first occurrence of Chanaresuchus bonapartei Romer 1971 (Archosauriformes, Proterochampsia) of the Middle Triassic of Brazil from the Santacruzodon Assemblage Zone, Santa Maria Formation (Paraná Basin)". In S.J. Nesbitt, J.B. Desojo and R.B. Irmis (eds). Anatomy, phylogeny and palaeobiology of early archosaurs and their kin. The Geological Society of London. doi:10.1144/SP379.22. Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Cabreira, Sergio F.; Cesar L. Schultz; Jonathas S. Bittencourt; Marina B. Soares; Daniel C. Fortier; Lúcio R. Silva; Max C. Langer (2011). "New stem-sauropodomorph (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Triassic of Brazil". Naturwissenschaften 98 (12): 1035–1040. Bibcode:2011NW.....98.1035C. doi:10.1007/s00114-011-0858-0. PMID 22083251.
8. Lúcio Roberto-da-Silva, Julia B. Desojo, Sérgio F. Cabreira, Alex S. S. Aires, Rodrigo T. Müller, Cristian P. Pacheco and Sérgio Dias-da-Silva (2014). "A new aetosaur from the Upper Triassic of the Santa Maria Formation, southern Brazil". Zootaxa 3764 (3): 240–278. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3764.3.1.
9. F. Abdala and A. M. Ribeiro (2003). "A new traversodontid cynodont from the Santa Maria Formation (Ladinian-Carnian) of southern Brazil, with a phylogenetic analysis of Gondwanan traversodontids". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 139 (4): 529–545. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2003.00096.x.
10. Langer, M.C., Abdala, F., Richter, M., and Benton, M. (1999). "A sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Upper Triassic (Carnian) of southern Brazil." Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 329: 511-;517.
11. "Table 2.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 26.
12. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 235.

References

• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.

Triassic Period
Lower/Early Triassic	Middle Triassic	Upper/Late Triassic
Induan |Olenekian	Anisian | Ladinian	Carnian | Norian Rhaetian