| Dracaena colombiana | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Teiidae |
| Genus: | Dracaena |
| Species: | D. colombiana |
| Binomial name | |
| Dracaena colombiana (Estes 1961) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Dracaena colombiana is an extinct species of caiman lizards from northern South America. Fossils of Dracaena colombiana have been found in the Honda Group of Colombia. The species was described as a member of the tegus; Tupinambis huilensis by Estes in 1961.
Dracaena colombiana [1] was first described as Tupinambis huilensis by Estes in 1961, later named Paradracaena colombiana by Sullivan and Estes in 1997. [2] These ground dwelling insectivore-carnivores were described from fossils found in fluvial and lacustrine clays of the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the SALMA classification) Villavieja Formation in Colombia. [3] They share a number of features with extant caiman lizards, such as large teeth and a robust quadrate, but also bear more primitive characteristics such as a higher tooth count. [4]
Apart from the type locality in the Honda Group, fossils attributed to the genus Paradracaena were recovered from the Pebas and Solimões Formations of the Amazon Basin of respectively Peru and Brazil. [5] [6]
The genus Dracaena, also called caiman lizards or water tegu, is in the teiid family, along with tegus and ameivas. Caiman lizards are found in South America in Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil. These semiaquatic lizards spend a lot of time in the water and inhabit marshes, streams and flooded forests. Caiman lizards often bask on branches overhanging the water.
Tupinambis is a lizard genus which belongs to the family Teiidae and contains eight described species. These large lizards are commonly referred to as tegus. T. merianae, T. rufescens, and T. teguixin are popular in the pet trade. They are primarily found in South America, although T. teguixin also occurs in Panama.
Purussaurus is an extinct genus of giant caiman that lived in South America during the Miocene epoch, from the Colhuehuapian to the Montehermosan in the SALMA classification. It is known from skull material found in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon, Colombian Villavieja Formation, Panamanian Culebra Formation and the Urumaco and Socorro Formations of northern Venezuela. This indicates how widespread the wetlands such a large caiman would require to survive were across South America in the Miocene.
Hapalops is an extinct genus of ground sloth from the Early to Late Miocene of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina in South America.
La Venta is a fossil locality located in the modern departments of Tolima and Huila in Colombia. This site is one of the richest Neogene fossil assemblages in South America and represents the best-known Cenozoic fossil site outside of Argentina. It provides a glimpse of what life in the region was like before the main wave of the Great American Interchange.
Mourasuchus is an extinct genus of giant, aberrant caiman from the Miocene of South America. Its skull has been described as duck like, being broad, flat and very elongate, closely resembling what is seen in Stomatosuchus, an unrelated crocodylian that may also have had a large gular sac similar to those of pelicans or baleen whales. Mourasuchus, is a strange nettosuchid with an unusually long, broad snout.
Stirtonia is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. Two species have been described, S. victoriae and the type species S. tatacoensis. Synonyms are Homunculus tatacoensis, described by Ruben Arthur Stirton in 1951 and Kondous laventicus by Setoguchi in 1985. The genus is classified in Alouattini as an ancestor to the modern howler monkeys.
Langstonia is an extinct genus of notosuchian crocodylomorph of the family Sebecidae. It lived in the middle Miocene, in the "Monkey Beds" of the Colombian Villavieja Formation. Langstonia was named in 2007 by Alfredo Paolillo and Omar Linares for fossils originally described by Langston in 1965 as Sebecus huilensis. Thus, the type species is L. huilensis.(Paolillo & Linares 2007)
The South American land mammal ages (SALMA) establish a geologic timescale for prehistoric South American fauna beginning 64.5 Ma during the Paleocene and continuing through to the Late Pleistocene. These periods are referred to as ages, stages, or intervals and were established using geographic place names where fossil materials where obtained.
The Laventan age is a period of geologic time within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Colloncuran and precedes the Mayoan age.
Gryposuchus is an extinct genus of gavialoid crocodilian. It is the type genus of the subfamily Gryposuchinae. Fossils have been found from Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Peruvian Amazon. The genus existed during the Miocene epoch. One recently described species, G. croizati, grew to an estimated length of 10 metres (33 ft).
Ikanogavialis is an extinct genus of gryposuchine gavialoid crocodilian. Fossils have been found in the Urumaco Formation in Urumaco, Venezuela and the Solimões Formation of Brazil. The strata from which remains are found are late Miocene in age, rather than Pliocene as was once thought. A possible member of this genus survived into the Late Holocene on Muyua or Woodlark Island in Papua New Guinea.
Granastrapotherium is an extinct genus of ungulate mammals, described from remains found in rocks of the Honda Group in the Tatacoa Desert, in the Colombian departments of Huila and Tolima, at the Miocene fossil site La Venta. The only species formally recognized is Granastrapotherium snorki. Remains found in Bolivia and Peru, seem to belong to Granastrapotherium or a very similar animal.
Xenastrapotherium is an extinct genus of astrapothere, a type of hoofed herbivorous mammal, native to South America, which lived in the Middle to Late Miocene period, typically during the Laventan stage. It is a member of the family Astrapotheriidae in the subfamily Uruguaytheriinae, large astrapotheres, equipped with a trunk-like nose and protruding teeth, similar to the elephants, but their tusks were the canine teeth, not the incisors. Xenastrapotherium was a genus widely distributed in northern South America, in contrast to other species of astrapotheres which lived in the area of the Southern Cone of the continent. It differed from other astrapotheres by having two lower incisors on each side of the jaw and the tusks have a pronounced longitudinal curvature, although their general shape and size are probably very similar to Astrapotherium, whose weight would be 900 to 1,500 kilograms, comparable to the current black rhino.
Colombophis is an extinct genus of snakes of the clade Alethinophidia, a group of "primitive" snakes. The genus was first recognized in the Villavieja Formation in the town of Los Mangos, part of the known fossil fauna of La Venta in the department of Huila (Colombia), in the middle Miocene. With the remains of a fossil snake was erected the species Colombophis portai in 1977, based on forty fragmentary vertebrae. These vertebrae are characterized by a low neural spine, and subdivided paradiapophysis and thin zygosphen. The vertebrae are medium to large, so the snake would measure about 1.77 metres long, similar in size to the current Boa constrictor.
Caiman wannlangstoni is an extinct species of caiman that lived in what is now the Amazon Basin and surrounding areas during the Middle and Late Miocene. Fossils of C. wannlangstoni have been found in the Pebas Formation near Iquitos in Peru and include partial skulls and isolated skull bones. Other fossils were uncovered from the Urumaco Formation in Venezuela and the Laventan Honda Group of Colombia. The species was first described in 2015 and the name honors Wann Langston, Jr., a paleontologist who studied South American fossil crocodylians for many decades. Features that in combination distinguish C. wannlangstoni from other caimans include a deep snout, a wavy upper jaw margin, a large and upward-directed narial opening, and blunt teeth at the back of the jaws. Based on the sizes of the skulls, its estimated body length is about 211 to 227 centimetres.
Eunectes stirtoni is an extinct species of anaconda that lived during the Middle Miocene (Laventan) in the area of the present-day Tatacoa Desert. Fossils of the species have been found in the Honda Group at La Venta, Colombia. The validity of this species has been called into question.
The Honda Group is a geological group of the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its present-day type section in the Tatacoa Desert in the department of Huila subdivided into two main formations; La Victoria and Villavieja.
Miocochilius is an extinct genus of small notoungulate mammals native to South America. The genus lived during the Middle Miocene epoch. The genus contains two described species, the type species M. anomopodus described in 1953 by Ruben Arthur Stirton and M. federicoi, described and included in the genus by Darin A. Croft.
