Sunday, May 19, 2013

#829 El Fossil, Villa de Leyva, Colombia

If you'd asked me if I wanted to go and see some dinosaur bones, I wouldn't have been unexcited, but I wouldn't be sure to go out of my way to get there. Seeing the enormous and very well preserved 'El Fosil' 15 minutes driving or an hour walking out of Villa de Leyva (#986) was enough to make me change my mind. It has an almost complete 110-million-year-old kronosaurus, the most complete one in the world of this prehistoric marine reptile. Without a tail it is 7m, but with the tail it would have been around 12m. It was discovered by local farmers in 1977, and the government wanted to move it, but the locals protested, and it has become their special treasure. 
In the same museum they also have another very complete skeleton of another marine dinosaur, and many dinosaur bones from the pliosaurs, plesiosaurs, and ichthiosaurs, as well as many other fossils common to the area.
Source: www.museoelfosil.com
Lonely Planet Colombia 6th Edition 2012

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