Tag: Columbia
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New Species of Ichthyosaur Identified from Colombian Fossils
SciNews has a post about a new species of ichthyosaur from Columbia. Platypterygius elsuntuoso, an ichthyosaur, lived about 125 million years ago during the early Cretaceous Period. Researchers from the Fundación Colombiana de Geobiología collected the fossil remains of a young adult in 1999. The specimen consists of an almost complete skull, some axial elements…
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Uncovering the Secrets of Colombia’s Rich Fossil Deposits
Smithsonian Magazine has a piece about Columbia’s rich fossil deposits. The formation of the Andes Mountain, about 72 million years ago, revealed many marine fossils from the Cretaceous Period. Ammonites—extinct marine cephalopods with distinctive coiled shells—are embedded in walls, floors and roads all across town. Locals and visitors often find fossils when walking unpaved roads…
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PBS Eons: How a Hot Planet Created the World’s Biggest Snake
The new PBS Eons episode is about titanoboa and the world it lived in. Check it out! About 59 million years ago, the largest animal lurking in the ancient forests of Colombia by far was Titanoboa – the largest snake ever known. It’s only been in the past few years that we’ve put together…
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Battle-scarred fossils suggest giant turtles fought each other—and crocodiles three times their size
Science Magazine has a story about the discovery of some giant turtle fossils in Columbia and Venezuela. The turtles, called Stupendemys geographicus, lived about 12 million years ago. Males weighed about 1100 kilograms. These new fossils show they bore unusual large horns off the front of their shells, which they probably used to battle with…
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Turtle the Size of a Small Car
Via NC State University: (hat tip Floyd) – “… A prehistoric turtle big enough to eat crocodiles has been discovered in Columbia. The turtle lived about 60-million-years ago, and was about the size of a small car. The fossils were discovered in a coal mine in northern Colombia, in 2005. And has thusly been named…
