Yaguará () is a town and municipality in the

Huila Department Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila department had a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants in 2020, of which 679,667 (60.54%) ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The urban centre is located at an elevation of in the

Magdalena River Valley The Magdalena River (, ; 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 its lower reaches, ...

and the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. The municipality borders

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel (province), Teruel Province. It had a population of 35,900 as of 2022, making it the least populated provincial capital in Spain. It is noted for its har ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

in the north, Gigante,

Hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...

and Tesalia in the south, Campoalegre and Hobo in the east and Tesalia and Iquira in the west. The departmental capital

Neiva Neiva () is the capital and most populated city of the Department of Huila, south central Colombia. It is located in the valley of the Magdalena River with a municipal population of 388,299. It is one of the most important cities in southern Co ...

is to the northeast. The Betania Reservoir is situated within the boundaries of Yaguará.Official website Yaguará
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Etymology

The name Yaguará is derived from the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

History

In the time before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

, the region of Yaguará was inhabited by the Páez. They defended their territory against the

Pijao The Pijao (also Piajao, Pixao, Pinao) are an indigenous people from Colombia. Ethnography The Pijao or Pijaos formed a loose federation of anthropophagous Amerindians and were living in the present-day department of Tolima, Colombia. In p ...

, who came from nearby Tolima and later against the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

. Modern Yaguará was founded on March 13, 1623 by Francisco Gómez Quintero, under the command of the governor of Neiva, Diego de Ospina y Medinilla.

Paleontology

Fossils of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

(

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

)

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') are an extinct group of large aquatic reptiles within the family Mosasauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains wer ...

Yaguarasaurus ''Yaguarasaurus'' is an extinct genus of mosasauroid from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) period of Colombia, South America. The remains discovered (an articulated skull, some vertebrae and ribs) were defined as a new genus and species of mosasauri ...

'' were found in the

La Frontera Formation The La Frontera Formation (, K2F, Ksf) is a geological formation, part of the Villeta Group, of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and neighbouring areas of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The sequence of limestones and lydites dates to the ...

in Yaguará and the species was named after the town.''Yaguarasaurus columbianus''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org

Gallery

File:Iglesia de Santa Ana, Yaguará - fachada.jpg, Church of Yaguará File:Iglesia de Yaguará - Huila - panoramio (1).jpg, Church by night File:Senderos Yaguara.jpg, Rural Yaguará File:Represa de Betania, Huila - panoramio (2).jpg, Betania Reservoir File:Represa de Betania.jpg, Betania Reservoir Dam

References

{{Municipalities huila department Municipalities of Huila Department Populated places on the Magdalena River Populated places established in 1623 1623 establishments in the Spanish Empire