María Páramo

María Euridice Páramo Fonseca (1963 – 5 January 2025) was a Colombian paleontologist and geologist. She contributed to paleontology in Colombia in the fields of describing various Cretaceous marine reptiles, most notably the mosasaurs Eonatator and Yaguarasaurus, the ichthyosaur Kyhytysuka, and the plesiosaurs Leivanectes and Stenorhynchosaurus.

Life and career

In 1991, Páramo obtained her BSc. degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a dissertation titled Posición Sistemática de un reptil marino con base en los restos fósiles encontrados en capas del Cretácico Superior en Yaguará, Huila and her PhD degree in 1997 from the Université de Poitiers with a thesis Les Vertébrés marins du Turonien de la Vallée Supérieure du Magdalena, Colombie, Systématique, Paléoécologie et Paléobiogéographie. With "Mention d'Honneur avec félicitations" for doctoral thesis. María Páramo lectured and conducted research in the Department of Geosciences at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá since 2006. Páramo helped establish a foundation for the preservation and rescue of fossils in the region of Colombia, along with other researchers and contributors.

Other species described by Páramo are the mosasaur Eonatator coellensis from Coello, Tolima, the pliosaur Stenorhynchosaurus munozi, and ichthyosaur Platypterigius sachicarum (now Kyhytysuka sachicarum) from the Paja Formation, Platypterygius, fossil fish species Bachea huilensis from the Villeta Group, and Gomphotheres from Pleistocene beds close to Cartagena. One of the most complete discoveries in South America, the mosasaur Yaguarasaurus columbianus from the La Frontera Formation, Huila, is mainly found in South America, but has been identified globally. Along with Fonseca, in 2000, she collected the tooth of a mosasaur found in layers of the Turonian of the Villeta Formation."

Páramo published in Spanish, French and English.

Works This is a list of publications. 2018 – Appendicular remains of an ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the lower Barremian of Villa de Leiva, Colombia 2016 – Stenorhynchosaurus munozi, gen. et sp. nov. a new pliosaurid from the Upper Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of Villa de Leiva, Colombia, South America 2013 – Eonatator coellensis nov. sp. (Squamata: Mosasauridae), a new species from the Upper Cretaceous of Colombia 2012 – Mosasauroids from Colombia 2007 – The first Late Pleistocene record of Kinosternon (Cryptodira:Kinosternidae) turtles for Northern South America, Pubenza locality, Colombia 2001 – Los peces de la familia Pachyrhizodontidae (Teleostei) del Turoniano del Valle Superior del Magdalena, Colombia, dos nuevas especies 2000 – Yaguarasaurus columbianus (Reptilia, Mosasauridae), a primitive mosasaur from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of Colombia 1998 – Platypterigius sachicarum (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria), nueva especie del Cretácico de Colombia 1997 – Bachea huilensis nov. gen., nov. sp., premier Tselfatioidei (Teleostei) de Colombie