YABALITO, Beds

TERTIARY (upper Miocene)

State of Falcón, Venezuela

Author of name: C. J. Maury, 1925.

Original reference: C. J. Maury, 1925a, p. 168.

Original description: C. J. Maury, 1925b, p. 411.

The term Yabalitos beds appears in two almost simultaneous publications by C. J. Maury (1925a, p. 168; 1825b, p. 411). In the first publication (on the Trinidad Miocene), Maury mentions in connection with her discussion of the youngest Miocene of Trinidad (the Todd's Road beds), "the Yabalitos beds with Arca patricia, State of Falcón, Venezuela". In the second paper, a note on Venezuelan stratigraphy, she localizes somewhat more precisely the beds, in the following terms:

"Yabalito beds, with Arca patricia, 15 miles southwest of Urumaco, State of Falcón, western Venezuela. Equivalent to the Arca patricia beds of Todd's Road, Trinidad, to those of the Botanic Station in Tobago and the Cerros de Sal beds of Santo Domingo. Identification Guppy, 1913, correlation Maury, 1924."

Her reference to Maury "1924" apparently refers to the Trinidad Miocene publication (Maury, 1925a). The Guppy citation refers to a brief note by that author dealing principally with fossils from Martinique, in which however, Guppy included a list of fossils collected by Cunningham-Craig" in localities called Caudevalito "(should be Cauderalito)" and Yabalito, near Urumaco in the state of Falcón." From Yabalito, Guppy identified ten species, including Arca patricia and referred the beds to the Miocene, with the observation that they presented a "striking resemblance" to the Gatún fauna of Panamá. The fossils from Cauderalito could not be identified. Maury, as will be noted, correlated the Yabalito beds as younger than Gatún, even younger than the Springvale beds of Trinidad, referring them to the uppermost Miocene.

Liddle (1928, p. 318) mentions outcrops of the "Damsite" formation (called "Caujarao" in the same connection in 1946, p. 500) north of Yavalito (sic), on the road from Dabajuro to Coro immediately west of the Zazárida river. From this locality, Liddle cites "Turritella altilira" and four other forms identified only by genus, but he makes no reference to either Guppy's or Maury's papers. He describes the horizon as a very sandy marry limestone, and considers that it occurs stratigraphically within the upper 1,000 feet of the Canjarao ("Damsite" formation, and is approximately equivalent to the beds which outcrop north of Urumaco. It is not clear whether this locality of Liddle's is the same as that mentioned by Guppy, or if it represents older beds.

As far as we know, no author since Maury has used the term "Yabalito beds", which may be considered obsolete. Presumably in modern terminology, the beds would be included in the Urumaco formation.

Frances de Rivero