Description

The Santana Formation is in the Araripe Basin near it’s namesake, the village of Santana in northeastern Brazil.  During the early Cretaceous period, the South Atlantic was opening up in a long narrow shallow sea.  The Santana Formation has exceeding well preserved and diverse fossil assemlage including some 25 species of fossil fishes often found with preserved stomach contents.  There are also fine examples of pterosaurs, reptiles and amphibians, invertebrates and plants.  The taphonomy of the site resulted in limestone accretions that formed nodules around dead organisms, preserving even soft parts of them.