Yaguarasaurus columbianus

Yaguarasaurus is an extinct genus of mosasauroid from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) period of Colombia, South America. The remains discovered 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 (19 in) and a total length of 5 metres (16 ft); an additional skull that measures 87 centimetres (34 in) long implies a larger size.

Yaguarasaurus columbianus

Rextron · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
YaguarasaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Length
5 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 8.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 93.9 Mya and 85.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 5 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous94–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences92–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94.4 Mya85.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Yaguarasaurus columbianus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

5 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Villeta — 2.83°N, 75.47°WVilleta — 2.52°N, 75.78°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Yaguarasaurus columbianus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Yaguarasaurus columbianus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Yaguarasaurus columbianus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Yaguarasaurus columbianus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 5 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Yaguarasaurus columbianus

Credit
Rextron
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itYaguarasaurus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Páramo 1994