Microfauna of the Tucumcari Shale, Lower Cretaceous of east-central New Mexico
— Kenneth K. Kietzke

This paper summarizes our present knowledge of the Foraminifera and Ostracoda from the Tucumcari Shale, with special emphasis on the attached foraminiferans, and includes illustrations of a few common and characteristic species. Previous studies of the Tucumcari microfauna are limited to an unpublished thesis by Brooks (1959) and occasional references to large, agglutinated Foraminifera in studies of the macrofauna (Scott, 1974). Brooks reported 56 species of Foraminifera and 31 species of Ostracoda (see Appendix).

 

The present study focuses on an exceptionally diverse microfauna from the Texigryphaea tucumcarii horizon at Pyramid Mountain, SE 1/4 SW 1/4 sec. 19, T9N, R29E, Quay County, New Mexico (Fig. 1). This locality was originally examined by Marcou in 1853 (Marcou, 1858), and has a very interesting history (Kues, 1985). Pyramid Mountain has been referred to as "Crazy Woman Butte" and "Lovers Peak" on various U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps, but there is no doubt that this is the locality Marcou referred to as Pyramid Mountain (Kues and Kietzke, 1985). The Texigryphaea horizon at Pyramid Mountain is located within the basal 1 m of the Tucumcari Shale, and is characterized by abundant remains of Texigryphaea, and lesser numbers of Lopha and other invertebrates (Kues et al., 1985).