The Crato Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous (Aptian) age in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin. It is an important Lagerstätte for palaeontologists. The strata were laid down mostly during the Aptian age, about 113 million years ago. It thought to have been deposited in a semi-arid lacustrine wetland environment.
John Casper Branner was an American geologist and academic who discovered bauxite in Arkansas in 1887 as State Geologist for the Geological Survey of Arkansas. He was chair of the Departments of Botany and Geology at Indiana University Bloomington and later at Stanford University. He was a member of the founding faculty at Stanford and served as the university's second president. He served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1904. He was president of the Seismological Society of America in 1911. He was an expert in Brazilian geology, among many other things.
Irritator is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous Period, about 113 to 110 million years ago. It is known from a nearly complete skull found in the Romualdo Formation of the Araripe Basin. Fossil dealers had acquired this skull and sold it to the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. In 1996, the specimen became the holotype of the type species Irritator challengeri. The genus name comes from the word "irritation", reflecting the feelings of paleontologists who found the skull had been heavily damaged and altered by the collectors. The species name is a homage to the fictional character Professor Challenger from Arthur Conan Doyle's novels.
The Romualdo Formation is a geologic Konservat-Lagerstätte in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin where the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará come together. The geological formation, previously designated as the Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation, named after the village of Santana do Cariri, lies at the base of the Araripe Plateau. It was discovered by Johann Baptist von Spix in 1819. The strata were deposited during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous in a lacustrine rift basin with shallow marine incursions of the proto-Atlantic. At that time, the South Atlantic was opening up in a long narrow shallow sea.
Leptolepis is an extinct genus of stem-teleost fish that lived in what is now Europe during the Jurassic period.
Anhanguera is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation of Brazil and the Late Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco. This pterosaur is closely related to Ornithocheirus, but belongs in the family Anhangueridae. The generic name comes from the Tupi words añanga, meaning "spirit protector of the animals" + wera "bygone".
Albulidae is a family of fish, commonly known as the bonefishes, that are popular as game fish in Florida, select locations in the South Pacific and the Bahamas and elsewhere. The family is small, with 11 species in 3 genera. Presently, the bonefishes are in their own order: Albuliformes. The families Halosauridae and Notacanthidae were previously classified in this order, but are now, according to FishBase, given their own order Notacanthiformes. The largest bonefish caught in the Western Hemisphere is a 16-pound, 3 ounce example caught off Islamorada, Florida, on March 19, 2007.
Mawsonia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish. It is amongst the largest of all coelacanths, with one quadrate specimen possibly belonging to an individual measuring 5.3 metres in length. It lived in freshwater and brackish environments from the late Jurassic to the mid-Cretaceous of South America, eastern North America, and Africa. Mawsonia was first described by British paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.
Caririemys is an extinct genus of side-necked turtles, belonging to the Pelomedusoides of the family Euraxemydidae. The type species is C. violetae. A single fossil of an individual was found in the Santana Formation in Brazil, an 80-million-year-old Late Cretaceous deposit that has so far preserved other fossil reptiles such as dinosaurs and crocodilians.
Tharrhias is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch. The type species T. araripis is named after the Araripe Basin, in which it was found in sediments of the Santana Formation.
Araripichthys is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish that lived from the Aptian to Coniacian stages of the Cretaceous period. The genus is named after the Araripe Basin, where it was found in the Crato and Santana Formations. Other fossils of the genus have been found at Goulmima in Morocco, the Tlayua Formation of Mexico and the Apón Formation of Venezuela.
Oshunia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Albian. Fossils of the genus were found in the Romualdo Formation of the Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil. Other authors assign a Cenomanian age to the fish.
Euthynotus is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the early Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic epoch. It is generally considered the basalmost pachycormiform.
Aglyptorhynchus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine billfish that was distributed worldwide from the early Eocene to the early Miocene. Fossils are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, but one species is also known to have inhabited the waters off New Zealand.
Bullichthys is an extinct genus of marine albuliform fish which existed in the Romualdo Formation, Brazil during the Early Cretaceous (Albian) period. The type species is B. santanensis. The genus name references its inflated otic bulla.
Spinofacia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the late Mississippian/early Pennsylvanian in what is now Utah, United States. Fossils were recovered from the Manning Canyon Shale.
The Araripe Basin is a rift basin covering about 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi), in Ceará, Piauí and Pernambuco states of northeastern Brazil. It is bounded by the Patos and Pernambuco lineaments, and is situated east of the Parnaíba Basin, southwest of the Rio do Peixe Basin and northwest of the Tucano and Jatobá Basins.
The Santana Group is a geologic group, formerly included as the middle part of the Araripe Group, in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil. The group comprises the Crato, Ipubi and Romualdo Formations and is dated to the Aptian to Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. The formations of the group were deposited in a lacustrine to subtidal shallow marine environment in the Araripe rift basin.
The Missão Velha Formation is a late Jurassic geologic formation in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin where the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará come together. The formation is the middle stratigraphic unit of the Vale do Carirí Group, overlying the Brejo Santo Formation and overlain by the Abaiara Formation.
Iemanja is a genus of pycnodontiform fish from the Early Cretaceous, described from Romualdo Member of Santana Group. This genus is known from only one species, I. palma. This fish is named after Yemọja, water spirit in Brazilian mythology. With length up to 60 cm (24 in), it is characterized by long snout that is probably used to feed from crevices of reef habitats.
