biology

Guabirotuba Formation

Guabirotuba Formation is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Guabirotuba Formation rather than just read about it. In short: The Guabirotuba Formation is a late Middle Eocene (Divisaderan in the SALMA classification) geologic formation of the Curitiba Basin in Paraná, Brazil. The formation crops out in and around the city of Curitiba and comprises mudstones and sandstones deposited in a fluvial floodplain environment.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

The Guabirotuba Formation is a late Middle Eocene (Divisaderan in the SALMA classification) geologic formation of the Curitiba Basin in Paraná, Brazil. The formation crops out in and around the city of Curitiba and comprises mudstones and sandstones deposited in a fluvial floodplain environment. The 60 to 80 metres (200 to 260 ft) thick formation has provided several fossil mammals, and indeterminate side-neck turtle fossils, and indeterminate terror bird fossils. A newly described species of Cingulata; Proeocoleophorus carlinii was also found in the formation.

Description The Guabirotuba Formation was first described by Riad Salamuni and João José Bigarella in 1962. The geologists named the formation after Guabirotuba, a neighborhood of Curitiba, the capital of Paraná State. The formation is the lowermost sedimentary unit in the 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) Curitiba Basin, a Cenozoic continental rift basin of southeastern Brazil, overlying Cambrian basement comprising gneisses, amphibolites and migmatites of the Atuba Complex and metasediments of the Açungui Group.

Lithologies

The 60 to 80 metres (200 to 260 ft) thick Guabirotuba Formation comprises a basal conglomerate, mudstones and sandstones, deposited in a fluvial floodplain environment. The sediments of the formation contain between 0.24 and 2.61% heavy minerals. Heavy mineral analysis on the very abundant zircons, abundant epidote, common tourmaline and kyanite and rare rutile has provided insight in the paleocurrents of the fluvial environment, with predominant flow directions towards the northwest and east-northeast.

Age The age of the formation has been a matter of debate, with early descriptions assigning the formation to the Miocene to Pliocene, but after the discovery of a mammal fauna described by Sedor et al. in 2017, the age of the formation has been defined as late Middle Eocene, or "Barrancan", which is a sub-age of the Divisaderan South American land mammal age, ranging from approximately 42 to 39 Ma.

Paleontological significance The Guabirotuba Formation is one of few formations in Brazil providing Paleogene mammal faunas, between the older Tiupampan Maria Farinha Formation of the Parnaíba Basin and the Itaboraian Itaboraí Formation of the Itaboraí Basin in Rio de Janeiro State, and the younger Tinguirirican Entre-Córregos Formation of the Aiuruoca Basin and the Deseadan Tremembé Formation of the Taubaté Basin.

Fossil content Fossils recovered from the formation include:

See also Abanico Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Chile Macarao Formation, contemporaneous formation of Colombia Soncco Formation, contemporaneous fossiliferous formation of Peru

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography Bellosi, Eduardo S.; Krause, J. Marcelo (2014), "Onset of the Middle Eocene global cooling and expansion of open-vegetation habitats in central Patagonia" (PDF), Andean Geology, 41: 29–48, retrieved 2019-03-04 Monteiro Machado, Denise Alessandra; Fernandes, Luiz Alberto; Góes, Ana Maria; de Mesquita, Maria José; Macedo de Lima, Fabio (2012), "Proveniência de sedimentos da Bacia de Curitiba por estudos de minerais pesados", Revista Brasileira de Geociências, 42 (3): 563–572, doi:10.25249/0375-7536.2012423563572 (inactive 12 July 2025), retrieved 2019-03-04{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link) Sedor, Fernando A.; Oliveira, Édison V.; Silva, David D.; Fernandes, Luiz A.; Cunha, Renata F.; Ribeiro, Ana M.; Dias, Eliseu V. (2017), "A New South American Paleogene Land Mammal Fauna, Guabirotuba Formation (Southern Brazil)" (PDF), Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 24: 39–55, doi:10.1007/s10914-016-9364-7, retrieved 2017-10-26 Sedor, Fernando A.; Vieira Dias, Eliseu; Da Cunha, Renata Floriano; Alvarenga, Herculano (2014), Paleogene phorusrhacid bird (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) from the Guabirotuba Formation, Curitiba Basin, Paraná, South of Brazil, 4th International Palaeontological Congress, p. 807, retrieved 2019-03-04 Da Silva Felipe, Rogério (2011), Características Geológico-Geotécnicas na Formação Guabirotuba Erosão - Movimentos Gravitacionais de Massa (PDF), MINEROPAR, pp. 1–48, retrieved 2019-03-04 Archived 2016-02-22 at the Wayback Machine Wagner Rogério, Daniel; Vieira Dias, Eliseu; Sedor, Fernando Antonio; Weinschütz, Luiz Carlos; Del Mouro, Lucas; Leitão Waichel, Breno (2012), "Primeira ocorrência de Pleurodira (Testudines) para a Formação Guabirotuba, Bacia de Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil", Gaea: Journal of Geoscience, 8 (2): 42–46, Bibcode:2012Gaea....8...42R, doi:10.4013/gaea.2012.82.01, retrieved 2019-03-04 Woodburne, M.O.; Goin, F.J.; Bond, M.; Carlini, A.A.; Gelfo, J.N.; López, G.M.; Iglesias, A.; Zimicz, A.N. (2013), "Paleogene Land Mammal Faunas of South America; a Response to Global Climatic Changes and Indigenous Floral Diversity", Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 21: 1–73, doi:10.1007/s10914-012-9222-1, hdl:11336/31253, retrieved 2019-02-15

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Guabirotuba Formation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Guabirotuba Formation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Guabirotuba Formation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Guabirotuba Formation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Guabirotuba Formation

In research: Guabirotuba Formation appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Guabirotuba Formation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Guabirotuba Formation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bartonian Stage, Conglomerate formations of Brazil, Divisaderan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Guabirotuba Formation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Guabirotuba Formation in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Guabirotuba Formation in simple terms?

Why does Guabirotuba Formation matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Guabirotuba Formation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Guabirotuba Formation.