''Bachea'' is an extinct

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

that lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

in what is now central

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

is ''Bachea huilensis'', described in 1997 by

María Páramo María Euridice Páramo Fonseca (1963 – 5 January 2025) was a Colombian paleontologist and geologist.

from the

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

of Huila,

Description

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

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

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 department had a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants in 2020, 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 on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

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 formations ...

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 and probably had a

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume Corpse decomposition, 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 he ...

diet.

Paleoecology

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

La Frontera Formation The La Frontera Formation (, 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 limestones and lydites dates to the ...

of the

Villeta Group The Villeta Group () is a group (geology), geological group of the Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, to the west of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The group, a sequence of shales, limestones and sandstones, is s ...

, a formation dating to the Turonian. As the

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') are an extinct group of large aquatic reptiles within the family Mosasauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains wer ...

'' Yaguarasaurus columbianus'',''Yaguarasaurus columbianus''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was 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 cr ...

.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 that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, are the Hondita and

Loma Gorda Formation The Loma Gorda Formation (, Kl, Kslg) is a fossiliferous geological formation of the Upper Magdalena Valley (VSM) and surrounding Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, extending from Cundinamarca in the north to Huila and easternm ...

s (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 (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

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

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

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

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

.Patarroyo, 2011, p.82

References

Bibliography

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