When we hear about Nuevo León, we don’t think of the sea or the beach, much less of marine animals. Rather, we associate it with mountainous areas and arid areas. However, there was a time when the state was home to marine waters and diverse aquatic species.
Today, Nuevo Leonese who want to enjoy the sea must travel to the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, head further south to Veracruz or take a flight to the Caribbean, since the presence of a coast is not part of their usual environment.
What was the sea like in Nuevo León?
However, millions of years ago, what is now Nuevo León was covered by a shallow sea that was part of a large prehistoric ocean, according to an article by researchers Felipe de Jesús Torres de la Cruz and María Isabel Hernández Ocaña, published in the UANL Journal of Scientific and Technological Dissemination.
This sea was home to a wide variety of marine creatures, including ammonites (extinct relatives of squid), fish, mollusks, and even giant marine reptiles like plesiosaurs.
Over time, the Earth’s movements caused the water to recede, exposing the land we know today. As proof of this marine past, fossils of these ancient sea dwellers have been found in various parts of the state, especially in the Lampazos region and other mountainous areas.
What happened to the sea in NL?
The sea that once covered what is now Nuevo León began to retreat at the beginning of the Paleogene period, approximately 60 million years ago. As the water receded, it left behind deposits of sand and clay, giving rise to an ancient coastline in the northeast of the state.
These layers of sediment are proof that the region was coastal in the past and have sparked the interest of the oil industry due to the presence of gas deposits. For this reason, the Burgos Production Facility was established in the area, with the purpose of extracting gas from the deposits formed in the sandy rocks of the old coast of Nuevo León.
At that time, the region had beaches and shallow waters where mollusks of the genus Venericardia lived, whose fossils can still be found in places such as the municipality of China, Nuevo León.
However, over time, erosion and the movements of the Earth covered these sediments with new layers of soil and rocks, causing the sea to completely disappear from the region.
What marine animals lived in the state?
According to UNAM Global, millions of years ago, when Nuevo León was covered by a sea, various species of marine reptiles inhabited its waters.
Among them was Mauriciosaurus fernandezi, a plesiosaur approximately two meters long, with an elongated body and fins that allowed it to move agilely in the water. Vallecillosaurus donrobertoi also lived in the region, and its remains were found in Monterrey.
Another great predator of these waters was Liopleurodon, a huge marine reptile from the pliosaur family, with powerful jaws and sharp teeth.
In addition, fossils of Jabalisaurus meztli, another species that was part of this marine ecosystem, were discovered in Monterrey. Together with other reptiles, such as mosasaurs and elasmosaurs, these ancient inhabitants made Nuevo León a very different world from the one we know today.
Why is the sea always moving?
The sea changes over time because the Earth is constantly moving. The huge rock plates that form the planet’s land move very slowly, causing some parts of the ocean to rise and become mountains, while other areas sink and fill with water.
In addition, the sea level rises and falls over millions of years, depending on factors such as the melting of the poles or the activity of volcanoes. That is why places that are now deserts or mountains, such as Nuevo León, were covered by the sea millions of years ago.
Source: lasillarota
