| Stenorhynchosaurus | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Holotype ofS. munozi whilein situ during 2004 or 2005 | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pliosauroidea |
| Family: | †Pliosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Brachaucheninae |
| Genus: | †Stenorhynchosaurus Páramo-Fonsecaet al., 2016 |
| Species: | †S. munozi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Stenorhynchosaurus munozi Páramo-Fonsecaet al., 2016 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Stenorhynchosaurus is an extinctgenus ofpliosauridplesiosaurs which lived in theEarly Cretaceous ofSouth America. Thetype species and only known isStenorhynchosaurus munozi.[1]
The genus name is derived from the Greek wordsstenos, "narrow";rhynchos, "snout" andsauros, "lizard", while the specific namemunozi is in recognition of Jorge Muñoz by discover and report the fossil.[1]
Fossils from the front of a snout of a plesiosaur were discovered in 2000 on the property of Jorge Muñoz, in Loma La Cabrera, nearVilla de Leyva inBoyacá,Colombia, on grounds of marine origin dating from theLate Barremian age of the Cretaceous. Muñoz reported the find to the local authorities, who in turn gave notice to staff of theMuseo Geológico José Royo y Gómez administered by theServicio Geológico Colombiano inBogotá. Then was made the excavation of the nearly complete skeleton between 2004 and 2005, in collaboration with the Fundación Colombiana de Geobiología ("Colombian Geobiology Foundation"), and the remains being then transferred toBogotá, assigning the catalog numberVL17052004-1, for preparation and study.[1]
The remains were found articulated mostly in the Segment C of the Arcillolitas Abigarradas Member of thePaja Formation, with kaolinitic argillite corresponding to an intertidal marine environment, with several specimens ofammonites or impressions of these in the rock matrix, including one inside the skull. These ammonites include the speciesGerhardtia galeatoides,G. provincialis and the genusHeinzia, typical of the Barremian. German paleontologist Oliver Hampe made an initial description of the specimen in 2005, classifying it asBrachauchenius sp., i.e. as an indeterminate species of this genus, previously only recorded in Upper Cretaceous sediments of the United States, and it constitutes the first reappearance of non-rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs after a hiatus between theBerriasian andHauterivian.[2] In 2016,María Páramo, Marcela Gómez-Pérez,Fernando Etayo and Leslie Noé made a more complete description and they designated to VL17052004-1 asholotype of a new genus and species,Stenorhynchosaurus munozi.[1]
It was a medium-sized pliosaur, reaching an adult body length of 7 m (23 ft).[3]
Paleontology in Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notable researchers |
|         | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major fossiliferous stratigraphic units |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notable fossils |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.png)
