María Páramo


María Euridice Páramo Fonseca is a Colombian paleontologist and geologist. She has contributed on the paleontology in Colombia in the fields of describing various Cretaceous reptiles, most notably the mosasaurs Eonatator and Yaguarasaurus, the ichthyosaurs Platypterigius and Stenorhynchosaurus and the plesiosaur Leivanectes.

Biography

In 1991, Páramo obtained her MSc. degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a thesis titled Posición Sistemática de un reptil marino con base en los restos fósiles encontrados en capas del Cretácico Superior en Yaguará, Huila and her PhD degree in 1997 from the Université de Poitiers with a thesis Les Vertébrés marins du Turonien de la Vallée Supérieure du Magdalena, Colombie, Systématique, Paléoécologie et Paléobiogéographie. With "Mention d’honneur avec félicitations" for doctoral thesis. María Páramo lectures and conducts research in the Department of Geosciences at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá since 2006. Páramo has helped establish a foundation for the preservation and rescue of fossils in the region of Colombia, along with other researchers and contributors.
Páramo, together with fellow paleontologist Fernando Etayo, collaborated in describing the first dinosaur fossil found in Colombia, Padillasaurus leivaensis from the Paja Formation, close to Villa de Leyva, Boyacá.
Other species described by Páramo are the mosasaur Eonatator coellensis from Coello, Tolima, the pliosaur Stenorhynchosaurus munozi, and ichthyosaur Platypterigius sachicarum from the Paja Formation, Platypterygius appendicular remains from Northern tip of South America, fossil fish species Bachea huilensis from the Villeta Group, and Gomphotheres from Pleistocene beds close to Cartagena. One of the most complete discoveries in South America, the mosasaur Yaguarasaurus columbianus from the La Frontera Formation, Huila, is mainly found in South America, but has been identified globally. Along with Fonsesca, in 2000, collected the tooth of mosasaur genus found in layers of the Turoniense of the Villeta Formation from "Mosasauroids from Colombia."
Páramo has published in Spanish, French and English.

Works

This list is a selection.

Articles

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