Yaguarasaurus is an extinct genus of mosasauroid from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) period of Colombia, South America.
Description[]
This reptile is a member of the family of marine lizards Mosasauridae from Middle and Upper Cretaceous, with global distribution, but in South America known only through isolated remains. This mosasaur discovered in Yaguará, was at the moment of discovery the most complete material known in South America. The remains discovered are an articulated skull, some vertebrae and ribs.
The remains were found in a limestone bed (Upper Turonian) of the La Frontera Formation, member of the Villeta Group, near Yaguará, Huila, in a site called Cueva Rica.[4] Its name means "Yaguará lizard of Colombia". They were defined as a new genus and species of mosasaurid, Yaguarasaurus columbianus, by the Colombian paleontologist María Páramo, former director of the Museo de Geología José Royo y Gómez of INGEOMINAS in Bogotá. The first fossils remains of this animal suggested a cranial length of 47 centimetres and a total length of 5 metres (16 ft); an additional skull that measures 87 centimetres long implies a larger size.
References[]
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233048703_Yaguarasaurus_columbianus_Reptilia_Mosasauridae_a_primitive_mosasaur_from_the_Turonian_Upper_Cretaceous_of_Colombia
- http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=collectionSearch&collection_no=122676
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3526648/
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/42568543
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3526648/