El Tranquilo Formation
Encyclopedia
The El Tranquilo Formation is a geologic formation
dating to roughly between 228 to 200 million years ago and covering part of the Late Triassic
. The El Tranquilo Formation is found in the Santa Cruz
province of Argentina
. Purported fossils of the prosauropod dinosaur
Massospondylus
have been recovered from the El Tranquilo Sandstone.
Geologic formation
A formation or geological formation is the fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy. A formation consists of a certain number of rock strata that have a comparable lithology, facies or other similar properties...
dating to roughly between 228 to 200 million years ago and covering part of the Late Triassic
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age...
. The El Tranquilo Formation is found in the Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
province of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Purported fossils of the prosauropod dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
Massospondylus
Massospondylus
Massospondylus and ) is a genus of prosauropod dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period . It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains found in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named...
have been recovered from the El Tranquilo Sandstone.