earth science

La Huérguina Formation

La Huérguina Formation is a earth science 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 La Huérguina Formation rather than just read about it. In short: The La Huérguina Formation (also known as the Calizas de La Huérguina Formation, La Huérguina Limestone Formation or as the Una Formation) is a geological formation in Spain whose strata date back to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Las Hoyas is a Konservat-Lagerstätte within the formation, located near the city of Cuenca, Spain.

Key takeaways

La Huérguina Formation belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect La Huérguina Formation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of La Huérguina Formation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The La Huérguina Formation (also known as the Calizas de La Huérguina Formation, La Huérguina Limestone Formation or as the Una Formation) is a geological formation in Spain whose strata date back to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Las Hoyas is a Konservat-Lagerstätte within the formation, located near the city of Cuenca, Spain. The site is mostly known for its exquisitely preserved dinosaurs, especially enantiornithines. The lithology of the formation mostly consists of lacustrine limestone deposited in a freshwater wetland environment.

Las Hoyas

Taphonomy As a Konservat-Lagerstätte, the preservation is exceptional. This may be a result of three factors: Microbial mats, Obruption and Stagnation. Microbial mats may be responsible for the preservation of soft tissue in many fossils from Las Hoyas, like Pelecanimimus' crest. The iron carbonate depositions, a result from bacterial metabolism which covered the dinosaur's crest enhanced the preservation of those soft tissues. Evidence of these mats comes from the studies on microfacies and the fossils themselves. Obruption is notable in the formation, due to the presence of highly articulated specimens. From actuotaphonomy studies on several different organisms it can be estimated that the burial of most entities was quick. Concornis may have been buried in less than 15 days, after a period of sub-areal exposition.

Paleoenvironment Las Hoyas was an inland lacustrine environment which presents an important aquatic and terrestrial flora (with many specimens of Charophytes, Montsechia, Weichselia or Frenelopsis) and diverse fauna, with specimens of at least five or six phyla: arthropods, molluscs, chordates and many vermiform soft bodied animals which might be Nemertines or annelids. Among vertebrates the most abundant and diverse group are fish. The presence of mostly articulated skeletons, exceptional preservation of tissue and lack of any other signs of transportation may indicate that these are demic and autochthonous entities (meaning that they lived and died in the same place where they fossilized). Crocodylomorphs are the most abundant amniotes from Las Hoyas. Dinosaurs from Las Hoyas (avian and non avian) are unique in many ways. The first ornithomimosaur dinosaur described in Europe, Pelecanimimus polyodon, shows some characters previously unknown in these dinosaurs which enhanced the knowledge on the evolution of the group, such as a high number of teeth. Concavenator corcovatus presents two unique features: very tall neural spines on the vertebrae near the hip, which look like a hump, and a structure on its forearm, which if homologous to quill knobs would push back the origin of feathers earlier in theropod evolution. Las Hoyas birds are enantiornithes, the most diverse Cretaceous bird clade, which became extinct at the end of the period. Iberomesornis romerali shows both derived ("avian") and primitive ("dinosaurian") characters. Within the derived characters we can underline the presence of a pygostile, although it is still very large compared to that of modern neornithines and the presence of a quilled sternum. Eoalulavis hoyasi shows the first report of an alula or "bastard wing", which means it had a flight manoeuvrability analogous to that of modern birds. The date of the Las Hoyas age is constrained to Late Barremian by charophyte and ostracod assemblages.

Research The Las Hoyas site has been studied for more than two decades by researchers from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the National University of Distance Education, in collaboration with the Museo de las Ciencias de Castilla-La Mancha, which is responsible for the fossil record from the area.

Fossil content

Crustaceans

Chondrichthyes

Osteichthyes

Amphibians

Turtles

Squamates

Mammals

Crocodyliformes

Ornithodirans

Correlation

See also List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations Paja Formation, contemporaneous Lagerstätte of Colombia Yixian Formation, contemporaneous Lagerstätte of China

References

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with La Huérguina Formation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what La Huérguina Formation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, 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 La Huérguina 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 La Huérguina 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 La Huérguina Formation

In research: La Huérguina Formation appears in earth science 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 La Huérguina 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: La Huérguina Formation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cretaceous Spain, Cretaceous paleontological sites of Europe, Geography of the Province of Cuenca, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for La Huérguina 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 La Huérguina Formation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what La Huérguina Formation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain La Huérguina Formation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is La Huérguina Formation in simple terms?

Why does La Huérguina Formation matter?

Because it connects several earth science 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 La Huérguina 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.

What does this page cover?

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