La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation


The La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation is an Early Cretaceous (late Berriasian to early Barremian geologic formation in Catalonia, Spain. The formation crops out in the area of the Montsec in the Organyà Basin. At the La Pedrera de Meià locality, the formation consists of rhythmically laminated, lithographic limestones that formed in the distal areas of a large, shallow coastal lake. It is noted for the exceptional preservation of articulated small vertebrates and insects, similar to that of the Solnhofen Limestone.

Fossil content

The La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation has yielded the enantiornithine bird Noguerornis and the scincogekkomorph lizard Pedrerasaurus, and two species of Teiid lizard Meyasaurus, M. fauri and M. crusafonti, the indeterminate avialan Ilerdopteryx, frogs Neusibatrachus wilferti, and Montsechobatrachus. A crocodyliform Montsecosuchus and many insects and other arthropods, as: