La Venta (Colombia)

La Venta is a settlement in Tolima Department, Colombia. Nearby, one of the richest Neogene fossil assemblages in the whole of South America is known. It provides a fascinating glimpse of how life in the region was like before the main wave of the Great American Interchange.

Fossil site

The fossils occur in Middle Miocene rocks of the Villavieja Formation. The La Venta fauna contained ancient species of animals stil 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.

Fossil animals found at La Venta include:
* a giant "Geochelone" tortoise
* a "Caiman" crocodilian; perhaps the earliest record of the extant Broad-snouted Caiman, perhaps the prehistoric "Caiman lutescens"
* the prehistoric armadillo "Anadasypus hondanus"
* glyptodonts
* a prehistoric New World monkey, "Cebupithecia sarmientoi"
* several of the extinct Meridiungulata: "Granastrapotherium snorki" (Astrapotheria), "Huilatherium pluriplicatum" (Toxodonta), "Miocochilius anomopodus" (Typotheria)

External links

* [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/mio/laventa.html University of Berkeley page on the Villavieja Formation, in particular La Venta]