Duke locality 46 - Arapaima fish (Miocene of Colombia)

Where: Huila, Colombia (3.1° N, 75.2° W: paleocoordinates 2.4° N, 72.4° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Baraya Member (Villa VIeja Formation), Middle Miocene (16.0 - 11.6 Ma)

• The strata belong to the Honda Group that is divided into two formations, the lower La

•Dorada Formation and overlying Villavieja Formation. The specimen was collected at Duke locality 46 in the "Fish Bed" of the lowest part, or Baraya member, of the Villavieja Formation.

•Fish Beds - Green claystone and mudstone is characterized by enormous quantities of disarticulated fish remains

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; mudstone

• The Fish Bed appears to be a lake or swamp deposit...at least 10 km in diameter

Size class: macrofossils

• The fossil Arapaima (Fig. 2) is a three-dimensional, nearly complete, and undistorted basioccipital complex that includes the basioccipital proper united with two partial vertebrae (Vl, V2), and a thin, veneer-like parasphenoid.

•The overall maximum dimensions of the fossil are: length 48.4 mm, width 23.0 mm, and depth 16.3 mm.

Primary reference: J. Lundberg and B. Chernoff. 1992. A Miocene Fossil of the Amazonian Fish Arapaima (Teleostei, Arapaimidae) from the Magdalena River Region of Colombia - Biogeographic and Evolutionary Implications. Biotropica 24(1):2-14 [A. Cardenas /L. Mora-Rojas]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 186568: authorized by Andrés Cárdenas, entered by Laura Mora-Rojas on 26.06.2017

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Actinopteri
 Osteoglossiformes - Arapaimidae
Arapaima gigas Lundberg and Chernoff 1992
Specimen n° IGM 183402