Loma La Catalina - middle Paja (Cretaceous to of Colombia)

Where: Boyaca, Colombia (5.6° N, 73.6° W: paleocoordinates 3.7° N, 42.2° W)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Paja Formation, Late/Upper Barremian to Late/Upper Barremian (130.0 - 122.5 Ma)

• Belonging to the middle segment of the Paja Formation called “Arcillolitas abigarradas”, which is upper Barremian-lower Aptian in age (~120 Ma), based on the presence of the Pseudocrioceras ammonite assemblage zone.

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified, ferruginous, nodular, gray, calcareous limestone

• The fossils were preserved in claystone and limestone layers with abundant occurrences of ferruginous-calcareous nodules and concretions. All specimens are preserved in a predominantly dark grey limestone. They have a layer of ferruginous oxides that frequently covers the exterior surface of the bones and fills in cavities.

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Mary Luz Parra, Juan Parra, and Freddy Parra; reposited in the UCMP

• Prepared at the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas in Villa de Leyva, Colombia (CIP).

Primary reference: E. A. Cadena and J. F. Parham. 2015. Oldest known marine turtle? A new protostegid from the Lower Cretaceous of Colombia. PaleoBios 32(1):1-42 [M. Uhen/M. Bean/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 176544: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Meredith Bean on 17.02.2016, edited by Patricia Holroyd, Mark Uhen and Evangelos Vlachos

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Testudines - Sandownidae
Leyvachelys cipadi n. gen. n. sp.
Leyvachelys cipadi n. gen. n. sp. Cadena 2015 turtle
FCG-CBP-71, holotype
 Testudines - Protostegidae
Desmatochelys padillai n. sp. Cadena and Parham 2015 sea turtle