''Bachea'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

that lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

in what is now central Colombia,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

is ''B. huilensis'', described in 1997 by

María Páramo María Euridice Páramo Fonseca (born 1953 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a Colombian paleontologist and geologist.Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded ...

of Huila, Colombia.

Description

The genus name ''Bachea'' is derived from the Baché River in Huila and the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

refers to the

Huila Department Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila is a department that has a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants, of which 679,667 (60.54 ...

, where the fossils were found. The fish is placed in the suborder Tselfatoidei, but the family placement is uncertain.Páramo, 1997 The fossil find is the first specimen from the suborder in Colombia, extending their distribution.García Rodríguez, 2015, p.35 The fish had a tall body with the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

folded along the back of the body. The mouth was relatively small, with extruding teeth. These characteristics are found in part in other early Late Cretaceous fish, such as '' Concavotectum moroccensis'' from the

Kem Kem Beds The Kem Kem Group (commonly known as the Kem Kem beds) is a geological group in the Kem Kem region of eastern Morocco, whose strata date back to the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Its strata are subdivided into two geological formation ...

of Morocco.Cavin & Forey, 2008, p.199 The several specimens found range from in length, making ''Bachea'' one of the larger forms in their order.Vernygora et al., 2017, p.2 They are considered to have lived in a coastal

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

and probably had a

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

diet.

Paleoecology

The fossils of ''Bachea huilensis'' were reported to have been found in the

La Frontera Formation The La Frontera Formation ( es, Formación La Frontera, K2F, Ksf) is a geological formation, part of the Villeta Group, of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and neighbouring areas of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The sequence of limeston ...

of the

Villeta Group The Villeta Group ( es, Grupo Villeta) is a geological group of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, to the west of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The group, a sequence of shales, limestones and sandstones, is subdivided into various formatio ...

, a formation dating to the Turonian. As the

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Ma ...

Yaguarasaurus columbianus ''Yaguarasaurus'' is an extinct genus of mosasauroid from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian) period of Colombia, South America. The remains discovered (an articulated skull, some vertebrae and ribs) were defined as a new genus and species of mosasa ...

'',''Yaguarasaurus columbianus''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cre ...

.orgPáramo Fonseca, 2000, p.124 reported from the same formation, the La Frontera Formation has not been mapped south of Cundinamarca. The time-equivalent formations of the La Frontera Formation, which is restricted to the central

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Le ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, are the Hondita and Loma Gorda Formations (pertaining to the Güagüaquí Group) from the south-central

Upper Magdalena Valley Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...

and surrounding Eastern and

Central Ranges Central Ranges (code CER) is an Australian bioregion, with an area of 101,640.44 square kilometres (39,244 sq mi) spreading across two states and one territory: South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.Pachyrhizodus etayoi'' also from Turonian Huila,Castelblanco & Vásquez, 2016 and '' Candelarhynchus padillai'' from the San Rafael Formation,Vernygora et al., 2017, p.5 which is also rich in ammonite fauna and preserves

crustacea Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

ns.Patarroyo & Rojas, 2007, p.92 The Turonian to early Coniacian Loma Gorda Formation has provided many

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttle ...

s,Patarroyo, 2011, p.72 while the underlying Hondita Formation is poorer in these cephalopods and probably dates to the Cenomanian.Patarroyo, 2011, p.82

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * ;Maps * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q65082435 Tselfatiiformes Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Cretaceous bony fish Turonian life Late Cretaceous animals of South America Prehistoric fish of South America Cretaceous Colombia Fossils of Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1997 Taxa named by María Páramo