''Stenorhynchosaurus'' 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 ...

of pliosaurid

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an Order (biology), order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period (geology), Period, possibly in the Rhaetian st ...

s which lived in the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

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 ...

and only known is ''Stenorhynchosaurus munozi''.

Etymology

The genus name is derived from the Greek words ''stenos'', "narrow"; ''rhynchos'', "snout" and ''sauros'', "lizard", while the specific name ''munozi'' is in recognition of Jorge Muñoz by discover and report the fossil.

Discovery and naming

Fossils from the front of a snout of a plesiosaur were discovered in 2000 on the property of Jorge Muñoz, in Loma La Cabrera, near

Villa de Leyva Villa de Leyva, also called Villa de Leiva, is a touristic colonial town and municipality, in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Boyacá Department of Colombia. The town is a Colombian National Heritage Town and is on the tentative list for UNE ...

in Boyacá,

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 ...

, on grounds of marine origin dating from the Late Barremian age of the Cretaceous. Muñoz reported the find to the local authorities, who in turn gave notice to staff of the Museo Geológico José Royo y Gómez administered by the

Servicio Geológico Colombiano The Colombian Geological Survey (CGS) (; formerly known as INGEOMINAS) is a scientific Government agency, agency of the Colombian government in charge of contributing to the socioeconomic development of the nation through research in basic and ap ...

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

. Then was made the excavation of the nearly complete skeleton between 2004 and 2005, in collaboration with the Fundación Colombiana de Geobiología ("Colombian Geobiology Foundation"), and the remains being then transferred to

, assigning the catalog number VL17052004-1, for preparation and study. The remains were found articulated mostly in the Segment C of the Arcillolitas Abigarradas Member of the

Paja Formation The Paja Formation (, K1p, Kip, Kimp, b3b6p) is an Early Cretaceous formation (geology), geologic formation of central Colombia. The formation extends across the northern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the Colombian emeralds#Western belt, W ...

, with kaolinitic argillite corresponding to an intertidal marine environment, with several specimens of

ammonites 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 ...

or impressions of these in the rock matrix, including one inside the skull. These ammonites include the species '' Gerhardtia galeatoides'', ''G. provincialis'' and the genus '' Heinzia'', typical of the Barremian. German paleontologist Oliver Hampe made an initial description of the specimen in 2005, classifying it as '' Brachauchenius'' sp., i.e. as an indeterminate species of this genus, previously only recorded in Upper Cretaceous sediments of the United States, and it constitutes the first reappearance of non-rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs after a hiatus between the

Berriasian In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age/ stage of the Early/Lower Cretaceous. It is the oldest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It has been taken to span the time between 143.1 ±0.6 Ma and 137.05 ± 0.2 (million years ago) ...

and

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.6 ± 2 Ma and 125.77 (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by the Valangi ...

. In 2016,

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

, Marcela Gómez-Pérez,

Fernando Etayo Fernando Etayo Serna is a Colombian paleontologist and geologist. His contributions on the paleontology in Colombia has been mainly on the descriptions of ammonites and Etayo has helped describing many List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units of ...

and Leslie Noé made a more complete description and they designated to VL17052004-1 as

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of a new genus and species, ''Stenorhynchosaurus munozi''.

Description

It was a medium-sized pliosaur, reaching an adult body length of .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q23884920 Pliosauridae Sauropterygian genera Barremian life Early Cretaceous plesiosaurs Early Cretaceous reptiles of South America Cretaceous Colombia Fossils of Colombia Altiplano Cundiboyacense Paja Formation Fossil taxa described in 2016

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Taxa named by María Páramo