Rudists of Mexico: Historical Aspects and Selected Areas of Research

Mexico, as a country, is remarkable for its abundant Cretaceous fossil invertebrate fauna. During the Cretaceous, what now is Mexico, was almost entirely covered by large shallow seas, which record a number of rudist deposits. The distribution of land masses, seas, climate and low ocean water depth were very suitable for rudist growth. As time passed, the geography changed and rudist abundance, distribution and faunal associations declined. This chapter reviews the close relationship between rudist assemblages and Mexican paleogeography. The data offered herein, concerning the number of genera and species of rudists, is based on what is recorded in the literature. This is not a systematic review because we never take into account synonyms or particular opinions about the validity of one or another genera or species of rudists. Finally we will examine some selected areas with interesting fossil rudist faunas.