Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas (CIP)

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Colombian fossils point to evolutionary turnover without mass extinction

Colombian partner institution and fossil repository

In the hills near Villa de Leyva, Colombia, the Paja Formation holds the bones of long-necked plesiosaurs, marine crocodile relatives, turtles and sharks, all packed into Early Cretaceous rock. A team from McGill University and the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas read that assemblage as a snapshot of two biological eras overlapping: lineages on their way out, living beside lineages on their way up.

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