The Honda Group ( es, Grupo Honda, Tsh, Ngh) is a
geological group
In geology, a group is a lithostratigraphic unit consisting of a series of related formations that have been classified together to form a group. Formations are the fundamental unit of stratigraphy. Groups may sometimes be combined into superg ...
of the
Upper and
Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and
Eastern Ranges
The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition.
The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...
of the
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its present-day type section in the
Tatacoa Desert
The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia after the Guajira Peninsula. It occupies more than 330 square kilometers. This region is located north of Huila Department, 38 km from the city of Neiva in Colombia and from Nata ...
in the
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Huila subdivided into two main formations; La Victoria and Villavieja.
The group was originally defined in and named after
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
, Tolima, but has been redefined based on the many fossil finds in the Tatacoa Desert, to the south. In the original type section of its occurrence, the thick group is subdivided into three formations, from old to young; Cambrás, San Antonio and Los Limones.
The group dates to the
Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
period; in its broadest definition from the
Late Oligocene
The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale, the younger of two ages or upper of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . The Chattian is preceded by the Rupelian and is followed by the Aquitanian (the lowest stage ...
to
Late Miocene
The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...
, and in the redefined type section restricted to the
Laventan
The Laventan ( es, Laventense) age is a period of geologic time (13.8 to 11.8 Ma) within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Colloncuran and precedes ...
age of the
South American Land Mammal Ages (SALMA), equivalent to the Middle Miocene
Serravallian
The Serravallian is, in the geologic timescale, an List of time periods, age or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the middle Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series, which spans the time between 13.82 annum, Ma and 11.63 Ma (m ...
epoch.
The Honda Group is a
Konzentrat-Lagerstätte at the
fossiliferous
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
La Venta site in the department of
Huila and eastern
Tolima and hosts one of the richest formations containing Miocene fauna worldwide.
Etymology and definitions
![Honda (Colombia)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Honda_%28Colombia%29.jpg)
The group was first defined by
Hettner in 1892 in the area of the town after which it is named;
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
, Tolima.
[Acosta & Ulloa, 2002, p.34] In 1942 and 1946, the group was defined as a
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
by Royo and Gómez. The first author who used the name Honda for a group, was American zoologist who studied the La Venta fauna in detail,
Ruben Arthur Stirton
Ruben Arthur Stirton (1901-1966), known to his friends as "Stirt", was an American Paleontology, paleontologist, specializing in mammals, who was active in South America, the United States and Australia. Stirton was closely associated with the U ...
. Subdivisions of the group have been proposed by many different authors with high detail in the different beds.
[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.47] Names as "Monkey Beds", "Fish Beds" and "Unit above Fish Beds" have been colloquially used to designate certain stratigraphic units based on their fossil content.
[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.48][ The most accepted definition of the group, formations and members was proposed by Villarroel et al. in 1996 to simplify the stratigraphy in a regional sense solving the excessive subdivision into 19 units by Guerrero et al. (1994).][Villarroel et al., 1996, p.51]
Regional setting
Today, the sediments of the Honda Group are exposed in the Middle (''Valle Medio del Magdalena'', VMM) and Upper Magdalena Valley
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
(''Valle Superior del Magdalena'', VSM) in an intermontane valley between the Central Ranges
Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.[Eastern Ranges
The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition.
The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...]
in the east. The valley in between the two major orogenic chains is filled by the Magdalena River
The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...
, the longest river of Colombia. The Upper Magdalena Valley geologically is subdivided into the Neiva Sub-basin with the Girardot Sub-basin of the southernmost Middle Magdalena Valley to the north, divided by the Natagaima Arch.[López Quintero, 2007, p.1] The Neiva Sub-basin is bound by the Chusma Fault in the west and to the east by the west-verging Garzón Fault.[Jiménez et al., 2012, p.186] The Mulato-Getudo Fault possibly underlies the Honda Group south of the La Miel River
La Miel is a river in Colombia and a tributary of the Magdalena River. The river originates in the Cordillera Central of the Andes and its watershed is located within the Caldas Department. Tributaries of La Miel include the Tenerife, Salado, Mans ...
.[Plancha 188, 2009] The Tatacoa Desert
The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia after the Guajira Peninsula. It occupies more than 330 square kilometers. This region is located north of Huila Department, 38 km from the city of Neiva in Colombia and from Nata ...
, where the type section of the Honda Group has been redefined is an unusually dry region in Colombia, caused by a mountain induced rain-shadow effect. In Middle Miocene times, the geography was more comparable to the present eastern foothills of the Andes.[Kay & Madden, 1997, p.163]
The tectonic history of the three mountain chains of Colombia, from west to east, the Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
, Central and Eastern Ranges has been studied in detail. The Western and Central Ranges were the first to be exhumed in the Paleogene, with minor uplifts in the Eastern Ranges at this age. The onset of the regional uplift of the Eastern Ranges is dated around the Middle Miocene, with an increased rate of exhumation between 12 and 3 Ma.[Sánchez et al., 2012, p.1] This caused a segmentation of the current Magdalena Basins and the Llanos Basin
The Llanos Basin ( es, Cuenca Llanos) or Eastern Llanos Basin ( es, Cuenca de los Llanos Orientales) is a major sedimentary basin of in northeastern Colombia. The wikt:onshore, onshore foreland basin, foreland on Mesozoic rift basin covers the dep ...
to the east, previously part of a larger foreland basin
A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithospher ...
to the east of the Central Ranges.[Parra, 2008, p.41] The León Formation in the Llanos Basin provides the first indication of the tectonic uplift of the Eastern Ranges, isolating the Llanos Basin from the Magdalena Valley.[Villegas et al., 1994, p.1849]
Description
Stratigraphy
The Honda Group unconformably overlies in parts the volcanic deposits of the Prado Member,[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.50] Barzalosa Formation of the Payandé Group, and in other parts the Saldaña,[Carrera Ortíz, 2015, p.24] and Santa Teresa Formations.[Álvarez et al., 2017, p.142] The unit is overlain by the Neiva Formation of the Gigante Group.[García et al., 2009. p.85] The presence of a hiatus between the Honda Group and the Barzalosa Formation has been suggested.[López Quintero, 2007, p.16] The group is characterised by two main formations; the lower La Victoria Formation
The Honda Group ( es, Grupo Honda, Tsh, Ngh) is a geological group of the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its ...
and upper Villavieja Formation
The Honda Group ( es, Grupo Honda, Tsh, Ngh) is a geological group of the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its ...
. Previously, the La Dorada Formation has been named as a subdivision of the Honda Group, while other authors define that unit as a member. Other names for members and formations are Cerbatana Member, also published as Cervetana Member, named after Quebrada La Cerbatana, Las Mesitas Formation, El Líbano Formation, Baraya Volcanic Member, named after Baraya, and Cerro Colorado Red Bed Member.[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.49] The Perico Member of the La Dorada Formation has been made equivalent to the La Victoria Formation, as well as the El Líbano Formation.[
]
La Victoria Formation
This formation was first defined by Guerrero in his Master's thesis (1991) and further refined in his doctoral thesis in 1993. The type locality of the La Victoria Formation has been set in the La Venta area and the formation is named after the town of La Victoria, at north-northeast of the urban centre of Villavieja. The formation, restricted to the Neiva Sub-basin,[Villarroel, 1996, p.53] consists mainly of sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s, conglomeratic sandstones and conglomerates (75%) with intercalated claystone
Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...
s and siltstones
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, pp. ...
(25%).[
The upper part of the La Victoria Formation, underlying the Villavieja Formation, is characterised by a section of conglomerates, designated the Cerbatana Member or Cerbatana Conglomerates. The conglomerate shows trough-cross lamination and imbrication of clasts in a predominantly matrix-supported sequence, with minor clast-supported sections. The base of the conglomerate marks an erosional surface into the underlying silt and clay beds. The clasts of the conglomerate are mostly milky quartz, chert and volcanic in origin, with diameters averaging around with a maximum of . Conglomeratic and medium to coarse-grained sandstone banks, with a similar grain composition as the conglomerates, up to thick are intercalated between the conglomeratic sections. The sandstones are cemented by calcium carbonate in ]hardground
Carbonate hardgrounds are surfaces of synsedimentarily cemented carbonate layers that have been exposed on the seafloor (Wilson and Palmer, 1992). A hardground is essentially, then, a lithified seafloor. Ancient hardgrounds are found in limestone ...
s that sometimes form rounded concretions. The claystones and siltstones that are less commonly found in the La Victoria Formations range in thickness from and show reddish-brown, greenish-grey and greyish colourations.[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.52]
Villavieja Formation
The name Villavieja Formation was first proposed by Wellman in 1968 as a member of the Honda Formation. Two years later, the author elevated the rank to a formation, as part of the Honda Group. The formation takes its name from the municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
Villavieja, Huila, to the north-northeast of the departmental capital Neiva
Neiva () is the capital of the Department of Huila. It is located in the valley of the Magdalena River in south central Colombia with a population of about 357,392 inhabitants. It is one of the most important cities in southern Colombia, mainly ...
. The type locality is situated on the right bank of the Magdalena River
The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...
in the Eastern Ranges
The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition.
The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...
of the Colombian Andes.[
The contact between the Villavieja Formation and the underlying La Victoria Formation is concordant.][ The basal part of the Villavieja Formation comprises ]siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
s and claystone
Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...
s that also form the bulk of the formation with 75 percent. The remaining quarter is composed of conglomeratic sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s. The thickness of the siltstones and claystones can exceed and have interspersed fine- to medium-grained thin sandstone beds. The fine sediments of the Villavieja Formation are coloured greenish, reddish-brown or bluish-grey and display weathering patterns in so-called "cauliflower erosion" structures. The light grey coarser beds, up to conglomeratic sandstone size, do not exceed in thickness and commonly show a lateral transition with the silt- and claystones. The Baraya Member of the Villavieja Formation shows thin yellowish and reddish brown sandstone and siltstone levels with volcaniclastic grains.[
]
Honda area
The Honda Group extends for approximately from the Upper to the Middle Magdalena Basin and is exposed in various locations along the right and left banks of the Magdalena River. Outcrops along the road between Girardot and Agua de Dios
Agua de Dios (, literally in en, Water of God) is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and ...
, Cundinamarca show a lower sequence of thick beds of greenish-yellow feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...
- and mica
Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
-rich conglomeratic sandstones, intercalated with reddish claystones and an upper level of alternating medium-to-coarse grained quartz arenites with low-angle cross stratification. These sandstones are intercalated with thick layers of fissile claystones with common calcareous sandstone concretions.[ANi & Infracon, 2015, p.33] Sediments of the Honda Group restrict the course of the Sumapaz River
The Sumapaz River ( es, Río Sumapaz) is a major tributary of the Magdalena River in Colombia. The long river originates in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes at the largest páramo in the world; Sumapaz, of which it takes its name. It form ...
to a narrow valley, close to its confluence with the Magdalena River.[ANi & Infracon, 2015, p.45]
The majority of the municipality Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It migh ...
, Tolima rests upon sediments of the Honda Group.[N.N., s.a., p.182] In the Middle Magdalena Basin and the eastern flank of the Central and the western flank of the Eastern Ranges, the group is subdivided into the Los Limones, San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
and Cambrás Formations. The total thickness of these formations in the northern original type section of the Honda Group reaches ,[ while a total thickness of has been registered.][
]
Age
Thanks to the fossil abundance of the Honda Group at La Venta, the geological period of the sediments has received a separate name in the South American Mammal Ages (SALMA); Laventan
The Laventan ( es, Laventense) age is a period of geologic time (13.8 to 11.8 Ma) within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Colloncuran and precedes ...
, ranging from 13.8 to 11.8 Ma, as the only SALMA age defined north of the equator and in Colombia.[Laventan]
at Fossilworks
Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database
The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...
.org The age of the Villavieja Formation has been estimated to be between 17.0 and 12.1 Ma,[Villarroel et al., 1996, p.54] while the stratigraphically lower La Victoria Formation is dated at 13.82 to 12.38 Ma (Serravallian
The Serravallian is, in the geologic timescale, an List of time periods, age or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the middle Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series, which spans the time between 13.82 annum, Ma and 11.63 Ma (m ...
), based on fission track and volcanic analysis and paleomagnetic research.[
The Honda Group is laterally time equivalent with the lower part of the Real Formation in the central and northern Middle Magdalena Basin,][Sánchez et al., 2012, p.3] the lower part of the León Formation of the Llanos Basin
The Llanos Basin ( es, Cuenca Llanos) or Eastern Llanos Basin ( es, Cuenca de los Llanos Orientales) is a major sedimentary basin of in northeastern Colombia. The wikt:onshore, onshore foreland basin, foreland on Mesozoic rift basin covers the dep ...
,[García et al., 2009. p.60] the upper range of the Ciénaga de Oro Formation of the Lower Magdalena Basin,[Torres et al., 2012, p.2] and the Caja and Diablo Formations of the Llanos foothills.[Acosta & Ulloa, 2002, p.22]
Depositional environment
The Honda Group has been deposited in a fluvial
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, with the lower part of the La Victoria Formation in a meandering setting, while the upper part was formed in a braided river system. The paleocurrent was from the west to the east and east-southeast.[ The overlying predominantly finer grained Villavieja Formation was deposited in a meandering setting of a smaller size than those of the older La Victoria Formation. Paleocurrent analysis of the sediments in the Baraya and Cerro Colorado Members has revealed a similar flow direction as the La Victoria paleorivers, while the upper part of the Cerro Colorado Member shows an opposite trend to the west.][ The volcanic clasts of the formations have as provenance the Central Range volcanism, of which the volcaniclastics in the Honda Group mark its onset.][Gónzalez, 2001, p.81][Kroonenberg et al., 1982, p.21]
The depositional boundary for the Honda Group in the east is formed by the reverse Prado-Suárez and Cambrás-Salinas-Cambao Faults.[Triviño, 1993, p.29]
Paleoclimate and vegetation
Analysis of the "Monkey Beds" of the Honda Group, provided estimates of annual precipitation levels between . Today, these levels of rainfall are associated with the transition between savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
and forest environments in lowland South America. The vegetation of the La Venta fossil assemblage was diverse due to the different biomes of the depositional environment; meandering and braided river systems in a setting at lower altitudes than the present-day elevation of more than above mean sea level. It has been suggested that the vegetational cover of the Honda Group sedimentary sequence was not a continuous canopy forest, yet a complex pattern of different flora ecosystems. The evergreen Amazonian foothill forests of today would therefore postdate the uplift of the Eastern Ranges of the Andes.[Kay & Madden, 1997, p.186] Based on vegetational and grazer diversity analysis of the La Venta fauna, it has been suggested the ecosystem resembled more that of Africa and Asia than of the modern Neotropics.[ Research of the ]paleosol
In the geosciences, paleosol (''palaeosol'' in Great Britain and Australia) is an ancient soil that formed in the past. The precise definition of the term in geology and paleontology is slightly different from its use in soil science.
In geolo ...
s found in various levels within the Honda Group suggests the presence of arid areas in close proximity to pluvial parts.[Flórez et al., 2013, p.243]
Petroleum geology
In the oil-producing Upper Magdalena Basin, the Honda Group is one of the reservoir formations, next to the more important Caballos and Monserrate Formations.[Barrero et al., 2007, p.85][Carrera Ortíz, 2015, p.25] Shales of the Honda Group function as seal rock
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
for certain oilfields in the Upper Magdalena Basin.[Carrera Ortíz, 2015, p.26] In the Tello Field in the basin, the Honda Group forms the overburden
In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...
rock for the producing Monserrate reservoirs.[Ramón et al., 2001, p.63]
Fossil content
The Honda Group is the richest fossiliferous stratigraphic unit of Colombia, and one of the most important for the Miocene worldwide. At the La Venta site, numerous fossils of various orders have been recovered and are found still. The site marks a unique ecosystem showing a broad range of biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
. La Venta is also an important site as it represents the youngest uniquely South American faunal assemblage before the Great American Biotic Interchange
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which lan ...
; the result of the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama ( es, Istmo de Panamá), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country ...
, of which the initial phase has been dated at around 12 Ma.[De Porta, 2003, p.191] This led to a drastic alteration of the South American former island continental fauna. The Sparassodonta
Sparassodonta (from Ancient Greek, Greek to tear, rend; and , gen. , '
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
tooth) is an extinct order (biology), order of carnivore, carnivorous metatherian mammals native to South America, related to modern marsupials. They were once con ...
formed the dominant carnivorous mammal group in South America during most of the Cenozoic.
In South America, the carnivorous adaptive zone in terrestrial ecosystems was shared with other mammals; terror bird
Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were one of the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their conventionally accepted temporal ...
s ( Phorusrhacoidea), large crocodiles (Sebecidae
Sebecidae is an extinct family of prehistoric terrestrial sebecosuchia
Sebecosuchia is an extinct group of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes the families Sebecidae and Baurusuchidae. The group was long thought to have first appe ...
), large snakes ( Madsoiidae and Boidae
The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anaconda ...
), and even occasionally frogs.[Súarez, 2015, p.03] The diversity of fossil freshwater fishes and crocodilians at La Venta is the richest assemblage of South America.[Kay & Madden, 1997, p.183][Fauna de La Venta - flora, cangrejos y peces]
/ref> Fossilised trunks of '' Goupioxylon sp.'' have been identified in the Honda Group.[The Villavieja Formation, Colombia]
- University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
The genus names ''Hondadelphys
''Hondadelphys'' is an extinct genus of carnivorous sparassodonts, known from the Middle Miocene of Colombia. The type species, ''H. fieldsi'', was described in 1976 from the fossil locality of La Venta, which hosts fossils from the Villavieja For ...
'' and '' Hondathentes'', and the species epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
s of '' Anadasypus hondanus'' and '' Scirrotherium hondaensis'' refer to the Honda Group. The giant sloth
Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Carib ...
'' Brievabradys laventensis'', the primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
''Stirtonia tatacoensis
''Stirtonia'' is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the South American land mammal ages; 13.8 to 11.8 Ma). Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of ...
'' (originally described as ''Kondous laventicus''), and the marsupial
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...
'' Micoureus laventicus'' were named after La Venta, while the primates ''Miocallicebus villaviejai
''Miocallicebus'' is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the South American land mammal ages; 13.8 to 11.8 mya (unit), mya). Its remains have been found at the Lagerstätte, Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Ven ...
'' and ''Stirtonia victoriae
''Stirtonia'' is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the South American land mammal ages; 13.8 to 11.8 Ma). Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of ...
'' received their species epithets from the formations comprising the Honda Group.
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles and amphibians
Fish and crustaceans
Panorama
Regional correlations
;Legend
* group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
* important formation
* fossiliferous formation
* minor formation
* '
* proximal Llanos (Medina)
* distal Llanos (Saltarin 1A well)
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Laventan correlations
See also
* Cretaceous stratigraphy of the central Colombian Eastern Ranges
* Early Cretaceous stratigraphy of Iberia
Sources
Notes
References
Bibliography
General
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Llanos Basin
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Basement
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Maps
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Llanos Basin
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Catatumbo Basin
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Upper Magdalena Valley (VSM)
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Caguán-Putumayo Basin
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See also
* Geology of the Eastern Hills
* Geology of the Ocetá Páramo
* Geology of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense
* Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
, Cerrejón
Cerrejón is a large open-pit coal mine in Northern Colombia owned by Glencore. At Cerrejón, low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal from the Cerrejón Formation is excavated. At over the mine is one of the largest of its type, the largest in Lati ...
, Floresta, Paja Formation
Paja may refer to:
* Paja, Iran, a village in Sari County
* Paja (given name), a Serbian masculine name
* Paja (surname)
* Paja Formation, geologic formation in Colombia
* Paja Brava
:''Paja Brava is also used in Spanish speaking countries to ...
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Notes
References
Bibliography
Regional geology
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External links
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Faunas del Cenozoico de Colombia
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{{Paleontology in Colombia, state=expanded
Geologic formations of Colombia
Neogene Colombia
Burdigalian
Langhian
Serravallian
Miocene fossil record
Miocene volcanism
Conglomerate formations
Sandstone formations
Shale formations
Siltstone formations
Tuff formations
Fluvial deposits
Formations
Formations
Formations
Geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...