Etayoa
Extinct genus of mammals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Etayoa is an ungulate of the family Carodniidae in the order Xenungulata that lived during the Early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) in northern South America.
| Etayoa | |
|---|---|
| |
| Life restoration | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | †Xenungulata |
| Family: | †Carodniidae |
| Genus: | †Etayoa Villarroel, 1987 |
| Species: | †E. bacatensis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Etayoa bacatensis | |
Etymology
The genus of the type species Etayoa bacatensis was named by palaeontologist Carlos Villarroel after Fernando Etayo Serna, who contributed extensively to the paleontology and stratigraphy research in Colombia.[1] The species epithet bacatensis refers to Bacatá,[2] the name in Muysccubun for the main settlement of the southern Muisca Confederation; the name of which has been used for the current Colombian capital Bogotá, founded in a different location than the original Bacatá.
Description
The type species fossil specimen consists of a partial mandible with teeth, found in the Bogotá Formation in the locality Ciudad Bolívar of Bogotá, Colombia.[3] The estimated size of the ungulate is the size of a dog.[4]
Paleoclimate and environment
by Ron Blakey
The finds of iguanians, including the fossil record of hoplocercines, and boine, caenophidian, and ungaliophiine snakes in the Bogotá Formation indicate a tropical forest environment, present just before the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO).[5] The abundant paleosols of the Bogotá Formation show an increase in chemical weathering across the Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) transition; the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.[6]