The Los Colorados Formation is a sedimentary rock formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin, found in the provinces of San Juan and La Rioja in Argentina. The formation dates back to the Norian age of the Late Triassic. The up to 600 m thick formation comprises sandstones, siltstones, mudstones and conglomerates with gypsum layers deposited in a fluvial to lacustrine environment. The formation is the uppermost stratigraphic unit of the Agua de la Peña Group, overlying the Lagerstätte of the Ischigualasto Formation. Los Colorados Formation is partly covered by the Cretaceous Cerro Rajado Formation, separated by an unconformity. The formation is known for its fossils of early dinosaurs, including the coelophysoid Zupaysaurus and the "prosauropods" Coloradisaurus, Lessemsaurus, and Riojasaurus. Magnetostratigraphic analysis suggests that the Los Colorados Formation was deposited between 227 and 213 million years ago.

Description

Los Colorados Formation is a unit with an approximate thickness of 600 m of the Agua de la Peña Group in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin, where it is exposed in the Ischigualasto Provincial Park, a World Heritage Site in Argentina. The formation gradually overlies the Ischigualasto Formation and is unconformably overlain by the Cretaceous Cerro Rajado Formation. The formation comprises red-colored, fine- to medium-grain–size sandstones together with siltstones and ancillary floodplain mudstones with early calcisol development. The formation was deposited in a fluvial to lacustrine environment.

Fossil content

Anapsids

Synapsids

Archosauromorphs

Crocodylomorpha

Dinosaurs

Indeterminate theropod remains present in the Provincia de la Rioja.

Ichnofossils