The Itaboraí Formation (Portuguese: Formação Itaboraí) is a highly fossiliferous geologic formation and Lagerstätte of the Itaboraí Basin in Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. The formation reaching a thickness of 100 metres (330 ft) is the defining unit for the Itaboraian South American land mammal age (SALMA), dating to the Early Eocene, approximately 53 to 50 Ma. The formation is restricted to the Itaboraí Basin, a minibasin of 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) around the city of Itaboraí, 34 kilometres (21 mi) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, and comprises limestones, marls and lignites, deposited in an alluvial to lacustrine environment, dominated by heavy rainfall. The formation overlies Precambrian basement and is overlain by Early Eocene basalts and Late Eocene to Early Oligocene conglomerates. The up to 100 metres (330 ft) thick formation has provided many fossil mammals of various groups among which the marsupials and related metatherians dominate, birds, snakes, crocodiles, amphibians, and several species of gastropods. Several genera and species were named after the formation; the marsupials Itaboraidelphys camposi and Carolopaulacoutoia itaboraiensis, the birds Itaboravis elaphrocnemoides, Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis and Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis, the snake Itaboraiophis depressus and the caiman Eocaiman itaboraiensis and the gastropods Itaborahia lamegoi, Biomphalaria itaboraiensis and Gastrocopta itaboraiensis. The formation is the richest Cenozoic fossiliferous formation of Brazil, leading to the establishment of the Parque Paleontológico de São José de Itaboraí ("São José de Itaboraí Paleontological Park") in 1995. The site is a candidate for becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Etymology The word "Itaboraí" is of Tupi origin, and has two possible etymologies:
"River of beautiful stones", a combination of the words itá (stone), porã (beautiful) and y (river) "River of brilliant stones", derived from the words itá (stone), berab (brilliant) and y (river)
Description The Itaboraí Formation is restricted to the Itaboraí Basin, a minibasin stretching across an area of 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) of 1,400 by 500 metres (4,600 ft × 1,600 ft), in the vicinity of Itaboraí 34 kilometres (21 mi) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Between 1933 and 1984, a local cement company exploited the rocks in the area and their workers discovered the first fossil remains in the formation. The now abandoned and largely inaccessible limestone quarries of this locality have yielded a diverse mammalian fauna from early late Paleocene fissure fillings. The sediments of the formation were described by Leinz in 1938. Presently, the basin is filled up with water impeding any collecting activity.
Basin history The small basin, a small half-graben, is the oldest and smallest of several Cenozoic rift basins stretching across 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) along a west-southwest to east-northeast trend between the Paraná Basin to the northwest and the Santos Basin to the southeast, separated by the Serra da Mantiqueira and Serra do Mar respectively. This Continental Rift of Southern Brazil (CRSB) comprises the Curitiba, São Paulo, Taubaté, Resende, Volta Redonda, Macacu, Barra de São João and Itaboraí Basins. An erosional surface, correlated with a 55 Ma sea-level lowstand representing the Paleocene-Eocene transition and associated with magmatism, has been recorded in the various Atlantic marginal basins along the Brazilian coast; Pelotas, Santos, Campos, Espírito Santo, Cumuruxatiba, Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Basins.
Stratigraphy
The Itaboraí Formation rests unconformably on top of the Precambrian Paraíba do Sul Group, part of the Meso- to Neoproterozoic Paraíba do Sul Complex. The Paleogene succession of the minibasin reaches a thickness of 100 metres (330 ft) and consists of three depositional sequences, with the Itaboraí Formation representing the first two;
Sequence 1 (S1) - clastic limestones with travertine, grey carbonates and oolitic limestones, carbonatic shales and lignites, deposited in a lacustrine environment, originating from debris flows in a tectonic lake. From this sequence gastropods are abundant, while woods, reptiles and mammals are scarce. Sequence 2 (S2) - carbonates filling caverns and dissolution cracks on a karstic surface of Sequence 1, comprising fossiliferous marls, deposited in an alluvial to lacustrine environment, transported into these cavities by heavy rains and gravitational flows Sequence 3 (S3) - terrestrial siliciclastic sediments, including mudstones, sandstones and sandy conglomerates of Late Eocene to Early Oligocene age, derived from the surrounding basement gneisses, deposited by mudflows in a subaerial alluvial fan environment. These sediments, referred to as the Rio Frio Formation, have been correlated with the Eocene to Oligocene Resende Formation of the eponymous basin. The Itaboraí Formation is separated from Sequence 3 by basaltic volcanic rocks, formed in the Early Eocene. Thin section analysis suggests the travertine sequence went through a series of diagenetic processes: firstly, the deposition of the primary carbonate, followed by a set of percolating iron oxide enriched fluids and lastly a set of silica-rich fluids leading to the silica chalcedony and micro-crystalline deposition.
Age
The Itaboraí Formation, defining the Itaboraian SALMA, was first thought to be early to mid Paleocene in age, until dating performed by Woodburne et al. in 2014 suggested as a more probable early Eocene age (53–50 Ma), spanning polarity chron 23. The overlying basalts have been dated to the Early Eocene (52.6 ± 2.4 Ma). Another very important source of data is palynological analysis of a coal-bearing horizon (lignite) interlayered with alluvial fan deposits at the northern border of the Itaboraí Basin, suggesting a Paleocene to Eocene age. During this time, a biogeographical connection existed with Antarctica and, though separated by the developing South Atlantic, with Africa. The deposits of the formation were formed during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), just after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Paleontological significance
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