Carófitas del yacimiento de Poyos (Guadalajara) en las XXXVII Jornadas de la SEP

En las pasadas XXXVII Jornadas de Paleontología de la SEP celebradas en Cuenca se presentó una comunicación oral sobre las algas carófitas fósiles del yacimiento de Poyos en un trabajo liderado por el paleontólogo Josep Sanjuan y con el título de "Charophyte flora from the Late Cretaceous Poyos fossil-site, Iberian Ranges (Guadalajara, Spain)". En este trabajo se ha mostrado importante información sobre la datación y los ambientes de deposición de los depósitos cretácicos de la localidad de Poyos en Guadalajara.

The fossil site of Poyos (Guadalajara) is located in the Southwestern Domain of the Iberian Ranges on the red clayey beds of the Late Cretaceous Villalba de la Sierra Fm. The site had yielded a big variety of macrofossils of vertebrates, among which is particularly conspicuous the presence of dinosaur eggshell fragments, complete eggs and clutches. A diverse fossil charophyte assemblage (aquatic plants) from Poyos is here described and illustrated for the first time. Preliminary results indicate that the assemblage is composed of up to seven species with palaeoecological and biostratigraphical interest. The flora is dominated by the porocharacean Feistiella malladae which occurs associated to Sphaerochara cf. macrocarpa, Bysmochara conquensis, Lychnothamnus begudianus, Peckichara cristatella, Platychara cf. caudata and Platychara cf. turbinata. The here-studied charophyte assemblage brings new light about the palaeoecological conditions and relative age of the studied deposits. The set of charophytes in the site is characteristic of continental environments, however the dominance of F. malladae would indicate the prevalence of brackish-water conditions. Biostratigraphically, the charophyte assemblage from the fossil site of Poyos indicates a possible age of late Campanian-early Maastrichtian.