Crato Formation

The Crato Formation in northeast Brazil, is a lagerstätte, or fossil accumulation, where rich deposits of fossils were laid down during the Aptian phase of early Cretaceous times, ca 117 Ma. At that time, the South Atlantic was opening up in a long narrow shallow sea.

When they were first published, in 1993, the Crato Formation limestones provided a new pterosaur site, which also preserved insects that fell into a brackish lagoon and semionotid fish. The fossils are usually compacted and preserved in layers of limestone. Fossil Odonata (dragonflies) and damselflies are especially rich in the Crato lagerstätte: currently 384 specimens have been recovered, 264 adults and 120 larvae.