Zapata Formation

Zapata Formation Stratigraphic range: Lower Cretaceous
Type	Geological formation
Underlies	Punta Barrosa Formation
Overlies	Tobífera Formation
Lithology
Primary	Shale
Location
Region	Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region
Country	Chile

Zapata Formation (Spanish: Formación Zapata) is a sedimentary formation of Lower Cretaceous age. Much of the formation is folded and faulted as consequence of the Andean orogeny.^[1] In the outcrops of Zapata Formation near Torres del Paine the southernmost fossil of the ichthyosaur species Platypterygius has been found.^[2]

References

1. Fildani, Andrea, Romans, B.W., Fosdick, J.C., Crane, W.H., and Hubbard, S.M. (2008). Orogenesis of the Patagonian Andes as reflected by basin evolution in southernmost South America, in Spencer, J.E., and Titley, S.R., eds., Ores and orogenesis: Circum-Pacific tectonics, geologic evolution, and ore deposits: Arizona Geological Society Digest 22: 259-268.
2. Pardo-Pérez, Judith; Frey, Eberhard; Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang; Fernández, Marta S.; Rivas, Luis; Salazar, Christian; Leppe, Marcelo (2012). "An ichthyosaurian forefin from the Lower Cretaceous Zapata Formation of southern Chile: implications for morphological variability within Platypterygius" (PDF). Palaeoclimate, Palaeobiology, Paleoenvironments. 92: 287–294. doi:10.1007/s12549-012-0074-8. Retrieved 30 August 2016.