| Yaguarasaurus Temporal range: 90 Ma Turonian, Upper Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Infraphylum: | Gnathostomata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Subclass: | Diapsida |
| Infraclass: | Lepidosauromorpha |
| Superorder: | Lepidosauria |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Mosasauridae |
| Subfamily: | Plioplatercapinae |
| Genus: | Yaguarasaurus Páramo, 1994 |
| Species | |
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Yaguarasaurus columbianus |
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Yaguarasaurus was a genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) period of Colombia, South America. The remains discovered (a skull articulated, some vertebrae and ribs) were defined as a new genus and species of the tribe Plioplatecarpini, Yaguarasaurus columbianus, by the Colombian paleontologist María Páramo, former director of the Museo de Geología José Royo y Gómez of INGEOMINAS in Bogota. The remains were found in a limestone bench (Upper Turonian) of the Villeta Formation near Yaguará, in the site called Cueva Rica (Huila). Its name means "Yaguará lizard of Colombia", and measured about 5 meters long, with a cranial length of 47 cm. Yaguarasaurus were a close relative of Russellosaurus coheni and Tethysaurus nopscai, a group that could be a basal clade to the division between Tylosaurinae and Plioplatecarpinae subfamilies, called Russellosaurina.[1]
This reptile is a member of the family of marine lizards Mosasauridae characteristic of Middle and Upper Cretaceous, with global distribution, but in South America known only through isolated remains (Price, 1957, Pierce and Welles, 1959 ; Bonaparte, 1978;[2] Ameghino, 1918). The new mosasaur of Yaguará discovered, is now the most complete material known in South America.[3]
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