La Venta (Colombia)

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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.

Contents

Geology

Most glyptodonts - like this one - have been found in Patagonia, but they lived at La Venta too. Glyptodon.jpg
Most glyptodonts – like this one – have been found in Patagonia, but they lived at La Venta too.
Huilatherium pluriplicatum. Huilatherium pluriplicatum.jpg
Huilatherium pluriplicatum.

The fossils occur in Middle Miocene rocks of the Honda Group, which is divided into the younger Villavieja Formation and the older La Victoria Formation. The La Venta fauna contained ancient species of animal genera and families still alive today, as well as some entirely extinct prehistoric lineages. These animals lived some 13.8 to 12 million years ago in the Laventan age, which was named after La Venta. At that time, the climate of the region was wetter than today and there was much forest of trees similar (and probably related) to the sapino ( Goupia glabra ) of our time.

List of fauna

Fossil animals found at La Venta include: [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

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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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrapotheriidae</span> Extinct family of mammals

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<i>Granastrapotherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

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<i>Xenastrapotherium</i> Extinct genus of astrapothere

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<i>Hilarcotherium</i> Extinct genus of astrapotheriid mammals

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honda Group, Colombia</span> Geological group in the Colombian Andes

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<i>Cebupithecia</i> Single-species extinct genus of monkeys

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Saimiri annectens, originally described as Laventiana annectens and later as Neosaimiri annectens, is an extinct species of New World monkey in the genus Saimiri from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia.

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<i>Miocochilius</i> Extinct genus of notoungulates

Miocochilius is an extinct genus of small notoungulate mammals (typotheres) 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.

Paradracaena is an extinct genus of lizards from northern South America. Fossils of Paradracaena colombiana have been found in the Honda Group of Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The species was described as a member of the tegus; Tupinambis huilensis by Estes in 1961.

Huilabradys is an extinct genus of ground sloths of the family Nothrotheriidae that lived in what is now Colombia. Huilabradys was discovered in the strata of the La Tatacoa desert in the Huila department, in the Villavieja Formation, and is part of the so-called La Venta fauna, a fossiliferous location from the mid-Miocene period that has provided a notable paleontological contribution on the Miocene faunas of northern South America. The remains discovered are basically fragments of the jaws and teeth, allowed the identification of this species, whose only species is Huilabradys magdaleniensis, and was classified as a member of the nothrotheriid subfamily Nothrotheriinae, which comprises small to medium-sized species of ground sloths.

<i>Magdalenabradys</i> Extinct genus of ground sloths

Magdalenabradys is an extinct genus of mylodontid ground sloths that lived during the Middle Miocene and Early Pliocene of what is now Colombia and Venezuela. Fossils have been found in the Villavieja Formation of the Honda Group in Colombia, and the Codore and Urumaco Formations of Venezuela.

References

  1. ↑ S. E. Hirschfeld, and L. G. Marshall. Revised faunal list of the La Venta fauna (Friasian-Miocene) of Colombia, South America. Journal of Paleontology; May 1976; v. 50; no. 3; p. 433-436.
  2. ↑ Richard F. Kay and Richard H. Madden, 1997. Paleogeography and Paleoecology. Chapter 30 of Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene Fauna of La Venta, Colombia. Edited by Richard F. Kay, Richard H. Madden, Richard L. Cifelli, and John J. Flynn. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington and London.
  3. ↑ Estes, Richard and Richard Wassersurg (1963). A Miocene toad from Colombia, South America Archived 2015-03-19 at the Wayback Machine . Breviora, 193:1-13, December 5.
  4. ↑ T. Setoguchi; A. L. Rosenberger (April 1987). "A fossil owl monkey from La Venta, Colombia". Nature. 326 (6114): 692–694. Bibcode:1987Natur.326..692S. doi:10.1038/326692a0. hdl: 2433/199638 . PMID   3561511. S2CID   1420818.
  5. ↑ Meldrum, DJ; Kay, RF. (September 1997). "Nuciruptor rubricae, a new pitheciin seed predator from the Miocene of Colombia" (PDF). Am J Phys Anthropol. 102 (3): 407–427. doi:10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199703)102:3<407::aid-ajpa8>3.0.co;2-r. PMID   9098507. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  6. ↑ Czaplewski N.J., Masanaru T., T. M. Naeher., N. Shigehara, and T. Setoguchi: Additional bats from the middle Miocene La Venta fauna of Colombia Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine . Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias 27 (103): 263-282, 2003. ISSN 0370-3908.
  7. ↑ M. C. Vallejo-Pareja; J. D. Carrillo; J. W. Moreno-Bernal; M. Pardo-Jaramillo; D. F. Rodriguez-Gonzalez; J. Muñoz-Duran (2015). "Hilarcotherium castanedaii, gen. et sp. nov., a new Miocene astrapothere (Mammalia, Astrapotheriidae) from the Upper Magdalena Valley, Colombia" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (2): e903960. Bibcode:2015JVPal..35E3960V. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.903960. S2CID   130728894.

3°18′00″N75°06′00″W / 3.3000°N 75.1000°W / 3.3000; -75.1000

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