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Enciso Group

Spanish geological formation

Summary

Spanish geological formation

Field	Value
name	Enciso Group
image	Icnitas en Enciso.JPG
caption	Ichnofossils near Enciso
type	Geologic group
age	Hauterivian-early Aptian
~
period	Early Cretaceous
prilithology	Sandstone, limestone
otherlithology	Marl, mudstone
namedfor	Enciso, La Rioja
region	La Rioja
country	Spain
coordinates
paleocoordinates
subunits	Leza & Jubela Formations
underlies	Oliván Group
overlies	Urbión Group
extent	Cameros Basin
map	{{Location map+	Spain#Spain La Rioja
relief	1
width	250
float	center
lat_deg	42.1
lon_deg	-2.3
mark	Green pog.svg
marksize	10

~ The Enciso Group is a geological formation in La Rioja, Spain whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous.

The turtle Camerochelys was described from the Enciso Group. Dinosaur remains, including the holotype of the spinosaurid Riojavenatrix, are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

The first spinosaurid fossil remains found at Igea, Enciso Group were a jaw fragment found in 1983 and isolated teeth.

Description

The Cameros Basin containing the Enciso Group represents continental synrift deposition. It consists of carbonate and siliciclastic lacustrine deposits. Cobble to boulder-sized dropstones and sand to silt sized IRD were observed in three different lithofacies. These are restricted glaciolacustrine shales, laminated glaciolacustrine silts, and proglacial sandy lobes correlated to glacier front retreat. This deep glacial lake system is compared favourably lacustrine sediment sequences related to Pleistocene glacial cycles of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the eastern Canadian Arctic. This along with other evidence of cryospheric activity suggested extensive continental ice sheets during the Hauterivian Cold Snap.

Fossil content

The following fossils have been found in the formation:

Dinosaurs

Ornithischians

Ornithischians of the Enciso Group	Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Styracosterna Indet.	Indeterminate

Theropods

Theropods of the Enciso Group	Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Riojavenatrix	R. lacustris				A baryonychine spinosaurid	[[File:Riojavenatrix lacustris.png	center	250px]]

Turtles

Turtles of the Enciso Group	Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Camerochelys	C. vilanovai				A xinjiangchelyid turtle

References

Bibliography

References

[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/displayStrata?geological_group=Enciso&group_formation_member=Enciso Enciso Group] at [[Fossilworks]].org
Rodríguez-López, Juan Pedro. (2023-10-10). "Ice-rafted dropstones at midlatitudes in the Cretaceous of continental Iberia". Geology.
Weishampel et al., 2004, pp. 556-563
(2025). "An analysis of the first fossil remains of styracosternan ornithopod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of La Rioja (Spain) and its paleobiogeographical implications". Palaeontologia Electronica.
(2024). "Increasing the theropod record of Europe: a new basal spinosaurid from the Enciso Group of the Cameros Basin (La Rioja, Spain). Evolutionary implications and palaeobiodiversity". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
(2017). "New information on the anatomy and systematics of the Spanish Lower Cretaceous ''Camerochelys vilanovai'' (Testudines, Pan-Cryptodira)". Journal of Iberian Geology.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

geologic-groups-of-europe geology-of-spain lower-cretaceous-series-of-europe cretaceous-spain aptian-stage barremian-stage hauterivian-stage sandstone-groups limestone-groups deltaic-deposits fluvial-deposits lacustrine-deposits shallow-marine-deposits open-marine-deposits ichnofossiliferous-groups paleontology-in-spain geography-of-la-rioja

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