Abstract The Snow Hill Island Formation (SHIF; late Campanian – early Maastrichtian) crops out in the northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula and constitutes the basal part of the late Campanian-early Maastrichtian sedimentary succession of the James Ross Basin (NG Sequence). Its major exposures occur at the James Ross and Vega islands. Several fossil-bearing localities have been identified in the SHIF providing a valuable fauna of invertebrates and vertebrates, and flora. Our study focuses on the vertebrate fauna recovered at Gamma and Cape Lamb members of the SHIF. The marine vertebrate assemblages include chondrichthyans, actinopterygians, and marine reptiles (elasmosaurid plesiosaurs and mosasaurs). A diverse terrestrial vertebrate assemblage has been reported being characterized by dinosaurs (sauropod, elasmarian ornithopods, nodosaurid ankylosaur, and a paravian theropod), pterosaurs and birds. Most SHIF dinosaurs share close affinities with penecontemporaneous taxa from southern South America, indicating that at least some continental vertebrates could disperse between southern South America and Antarctica during the Late Cretaceous. The Snow Hill Island Formation provides the most diverse Late Cretaceous marine and continental faunas from Antarctica. The present study summarizes previous and new vertebrate findings with the best actualized stratigraphical framework, providing a more complete fauna association and analyzing further perspectives.

Despite the abundant fossil content of the Mata Amarilla Formation (Southern Patagonia, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina), its age has always generated a considerable number of questions and debates. The chronological data provided by invertebrates, dinosaurs, fish, turtles, plesiosaurs and fossil flora are contradictory. In this work, twenty U-Pb spot analyses by laser ablation were carried out on the outer parts of the zoned zircon crystals from a tuff layer of the middle section of the Mata Amarilla Formation, yielding a U-Pb concordia age of 96.23±0.71 Ma, which corresponds to the middle Cenomanian. The deposition of the lower section of the Mata Amarilla Formation marks the onset of the foreland stage of the Austral Basin (also known as Magallanes Basin); this transition is characterized by the west-east shift of the depositional systems, which is consistent with the progradation of the Cretaceous fold-and-thrust belt. Thus, the onset of the foreland stage could have occurred between the upper Albian and lower Cenomanian, as the underlying Piedra Clavada Formation is lower Albian in age. On comparing the data obtained with information from the Última Esperanza Province in Chile, it can be suggested that the initiation of the closure of the Rocas Verdes Marginal Basin occurred simultaneously.

A pesar del abundante contenido fosilífero de la Formación Mata Amarilla (Patagonia Austral, Provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina), siempre se generaron abundantes dudas y debates acerca de cuál es la edad de esta formación. Los datos cronológicos aportados por los invertebrados, los dinosaurios, peces, tortugas, plesiosaurios y flora fósil son dispares. En el presente trabajo se obtuvo una edad U-Pb concordia por la metodología de ablación láser aplicada a 20 puntos de la parte externa de circones zonados provenientes de un nivel tobáceo hallado en la sección media de la Formación Mata Amarilla, lo cual arrojó una edad de 96,23±0,71 Ma, que corresponde al Cenomaniano medio. La depositación de la sección inferior de la Formación Mata Amarilla marca el inicio del estadio de antepaís de la Cuenca Austral (también conocida como Cuenca de Magallanes); este pasaje está signado por el cambio oeste-este de los sistemas depositacionales, los cuales se encuentran en concordancia con la progradación de la faja plegada y corrida cretácica. Así, el comienzo del estadio de antepaís quedaría comprendido entre el Albiano superior y el Cenomaniano inferior, debido a que la subyacente Formación Piedra Clavada posee una edad Albiano inferior. Al comparar estos resultados con los datos de la Provincia de Última Esperanza en Chile, se sugiere que el comienzo del cierre de la cuenca marginal de Rocas Verdes se produjo en forma simultánea.