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 .
Geology
Most
glyptodonts – like this one – have been found in
Patagonia , but they lived at La Venta too.
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]
Freshwaters fishes, including remains of fishes of the families like
Anostomidae ,
Osteoglossidae (arapaimas),
Characidae ,
Pimelodidae ,
Callichthyidae ,
Ariidae ,
Doradidae ,
Loricariidae ,
Cichlidae and the river stingrays
Potamotrygonidae .
A fossil of an
anuran
amphibian was classified in the current species
Rhinella marina (cane toad).
[3]
Freshwater turtles like
Podocnemis pritchardi ,
Podocnemis medemi and
Chelus colombiana , along the terrestrial tortoise
Geochelone hesterna .
Anilid snakes (
Colombophis ) and the primitive
anaconda
Eunectes stirtoni .
A lizard,
Paradracaena colombiana .
Several types of
crocodylomorphs : perhaps the earliest record of the extant
Broad-snouted Caiman , possibly the prehistoric
Caiman lutescens . Also a species of the giant caiman
Purussaurus , P. neivensis , the bizarre
Mourasuchus , the mysterious species
Balanerodus logimus , the gharial
Gryposuchus colombianus , a false-gharial crocodile
Charactosuchus fieldsi and the terrestrial sebecid
Langstonia .
Several types of birds, like the
cuculiform
Hoazinoides magdalenae , the
jacamar
Galbula hylochoreutes , the
limpkin
Aramus paludigrus and a non-named species of
Anhinga .
Prehistoric
armadillos , like
Anadasypus hondanus ,
Nanoastegotherium prostatum and
Pedrolypeutes praecursor .
One of the earliest known
pampatheres ,
Scirrotherium .
Several fossils of
glyptodonts , including two species of
Boreostemma , B. gigantea and B. acostae (formerly including in the genus
Asterostemma ).
An
anteater ,
Neotamandua borealis .
Sloths , like the big
Magdalenabradys , and small genera like
Brievabradys ,
Neonematherium and
Huilabradys .
A prehistoric
manatee ,
Potamosiren .
Several kinds of
New World monkeys (
Platyrrhini ), like the species
Cebupithecia sarmientoi ,
Stirtonia victoriae and S. tatacoensis ,
Aotus dindensis ,
[4]
Nuciruptor rubricae ,
[5]
Mohanamico ,
Lagonimico ,
Patasola and
Laventiana .
Bats (
Chiroptera ), like the living species of fisher bat
Noctilio albiventris and
Thyroptera lavali along with extinct species like
Potamops mascahehenes ,
Notonycteris magdalenensis ,
Notonycteris sucharadeus ,
Palynephyllum antimaster and
Molossus colombiensis .
[6]
Rodents like
Scleromys shurmanni , Scleromys colombianus ,
Olenopsis aequatorialis and
Neoreomys huilensis .
Many species of (
South American endemic ungulates ), including the
astrapotheres
Granastrapotherium snorki ,
Xenastrapotherium kraglievichi , and
Hilarcotherium castanedaii ;
[7] the
notoungulates
Huilatherium pluriplicatum ,
Pericotoxodon platygnathus , and
Miocochilius anomopodus ; and the
litopterns
Megadolodus ,
Mesolicaphrium ,
Villarroelia and an unnamed species of
Theosodon .
Small
marsupials like the
opossums
Thylamys minutus , T. colombianus and
Marmosa laventicus , the
paucituberculatans
Pithiculites chenche and
Hondathentes cazador , and the
microbiotherian
Pachybiotherium minor .
Several kinds of omnivore and carnivore
metatherians that belong to the order
Sparassodonta , like the primitive
Hondadelphys , the saber-toothed
Anachlysictis (family
Thylacosmilidae ),
Lycopsis longirostris , a medium-sized member of the family
Prothylacinidae along with its bigger relative,
Dukecynus magnus .
References
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ 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.
^ 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.
doi :
10.1080/02724634.2014.903960 .
S2CID
130728894 .
External links
Ages Defining formations and sites
Sources
3°18′00″N 75°06′00″W / 3.3000°N 75.1000°W / 3.3000; -75.1000