Right now, I am on a reserach trip in northeast Mexico – more precisely in the State of Coahuila, which borders Texas at Big Bend. We are visting several sites of palaeontological sites and Gomez Farías is one of them. The rocks we are interested in are of Late Jurassic age. The place is in the middle of nowhere. The mountain rim is named “Sierra de Jabali”. Just a dirt road across a train track brings you there. Hence, it is worth while: landscape, plants, animals are just great. The altitude is above 2000 metres. Turning rocks you find centipedes, scorpions, iguanas and geckoes, whip scorpions, camel spiders, black widows, tarantulas and other life forms that pleases any zoologist. The vegetation is breath taking after heavy rains there.
Red flower
The geology shows impressively the Jurassisc Cretaceous boundary, probably is one of the best sections in the world. The Jurassic (Tithonian) site was excavated by phosporite miners and left open for ages. Around 2000, remnants of a pliosaur were excavated. Further filed word recovered the rest of the 10 metre pliosaur, but also ichthyosaurs, thalattossuchian crocodilians, vertebrae of a long necked plesiosaur and millions of ammonites and bivalves. The density of the site indicates a concentration Lagerstätte of the finest. More work is planned there.
We visited the site first time since long and found the dirt track dodgy in places.
Scolopendra spec.
Mastigoproctus giganteus
Latrodectus mactans
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