Sachicasaurus is an extinct genus of brachauchenine pliosaurid known from the Barremian of the Paja Formation, Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Colombian Eastern Ranges of the Andes. The type species and only species is S. vitae.
Etymology The genus name Sachicasaurus refers to Sáchica, the location where the fossil was found, and saurus, meaning "lizard" in Latinised Greek. The species epithet vitae, meaning "of life" in Latin, was chosen because of the life in Sáchica the fossil find has sparked.
Description
Sachicasaurus was a large pliosaur, with the type specimen measuring approximately long and weighing . The holotype specimen, MP111209-1, was found in 2013 and is known from a near complete skull, and postcranial elements including a complete hindlimb and various vertebrae. Diagnostic features include a very short mandibular symphysis, reduced number of mandibular teeth (17 to 18 versus 25 to 40 in other pliosaurids), slender teeth, among other features. With a preserved length of (which may be missing the vertebrae from the end of the tail), the specimen is interpreted as a sub-adult individual. It is one of the largest and most complete pliosaurid specimens.
Paleoenvironment Sachicasaurus is one of four pliosaurids from the Paja Formation, others being Acostasaurus,Gómez Pérez & Noè, 2017 Stenorhynchosaurus,Páramo et al., 2016 and Monquirasaurus. It is also contemporaneous with the elasmosaurids Callawayasaurus and Leivanectes,Páramo Fonseca et al., 2019 the marine turtle Desmatochelys padillai,Cadena et al., 2015a the sandowniid turtle Leyvachelys,Cadena et al., 2015b and the ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs Muiscasaurus and Kyhytysuka.Maxwell et al., 2015
References
Bibliography Sachicasaurus
Other paleofauna
External links