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.
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.
Tupuxuara is a genus of large, crested, and toothless pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now the Romualdo Formation of the Santana Group, Brazil, about 125 to 112 million years ago. Tupuxuara is a close relative of Thalassodromeus, and both form a group that is either called Thalassodrominae or Thalassodromidae.
Thalassodromeus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Early Cretaceous period, about a hundred million years ago. The original skull, discovered in 1983 in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil, was collected in several pieces. In 2002, the skull was made the holotype specimen of Thalassodromeus sethi by palaeontologists Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The generic name means "sea runner", and the specific name refers to the Egyptian god Seth due to its crest being supposedly reminiscent of Seth's crown. Other scholars have pointed out that the crest was instead similar to the crown of Amon. A jaw tip was assigned to T. sethi in 2005, became the basis of the new genus Banguela in 2014, and assigned back to Thalassodromeus as the species T. oberlii in 2018. Another species was described in 2015 based on a supposed crest fragment, but this was later shown to be part of a turtle shell.
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".
Brasileodactylus a genus of pterosaur from the Aptian-age lower Santana formation of Chapada do Araripe, Ceará, Brazil.
Santanadactylus was a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Albian-age Romualdo Member of the Upper Cretaceous Santana Formation, of Barra do Jardim, Araripe Plateau, Ceará State, Brazil. Four species have been named, but today are no considered congeneric with each other. It was a rather large pterosaur.
Cearachelys is an extinct genus of pleurodiran turtle which existed some 110 million years ago. The genus is monotypic, with only type species Cearachelys placidoi known.
Santanichthys diasii is a species of extinct fish that existed around 115 million years ago during the Albian age. S. diasii is regarded as the basal-most characiform, and is the earliest known member of Otophysi. It appears as a small fish, similar in appearance to a modern-day herring little more than 30 millimeters in length. Its most striking characteristic is the presence of a Weberian apparatus, which makes it the most primitive known member of the order Characiformes, the order in which modern-day tetras are classified. Santanichthys has been unearthed from numerous locations throughout Brazil, in rocks dating to the Cretaceous Period. Its presence in these strata is seen as an indicator for the biogeography and evolution of its order.
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 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.
Paleomattea is an extinct genus of prawn, containing the single species Paleomattea deliciosa. The species is only known from the stomach contents of the fish Rhacolepis, which is referred to by the specific epithet deliciosa ("delicious"), and in the generic name, where mattea means "delicacy".
Pseudoellimma gallae is an extinct species of clupeiform fish which existed in the Coqueiro Seco Formation, Brazil during the early Cretaceous period. It was described by Francisco J. De Figueiredo in 2009, in a new genus, Pseudoellimma.
Bullichthys is an extinct genus of albuliform fish which existed in the Romualdo Formation, Brazil during the Early Cretaceous (Albian) period. The type species is B. santanensis.
Barbosania is an extinct genus of crestless targaryendraconian pterosaur from the Cretaceous Romualdo Formation of the Santana Group of northeastern Brazil, dating to the Aptian to Albian.
Maaradactylus is a genus of anhanguerid pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Lower Cretaceous period of the Romualdo Formation of northeastern Brazil.
Ornithocheiromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, around 140 to 92.5 million years ago. Ornithocheiromorphs were discovered worldwide except Antarctica, though most genera were recovered in Europe, Asia and South America. They were the most diverse and successful pterosaurs during the Early Cretaceous, but throughout the Late Cretaceous they were replaced by better adapted and more advanced pterosaur species such the pteranodontids and azhdarchoids. The Ornithocheiromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues, and they made Ornithocheiromorpha the most inclusive clade containing Ornithocheirus, but not Pteranodon.
Araripelepidotes is a genus of ginglymodian fish.
