El Fosil

Introduction

The Villa de Leyva area is Colombia's famous fossil country, rich in prehistoric marine fossils; most astonishing is the Museo El Fosil on the town's outskirts. About 100+ million years ago in the Cretaceous, this now dry Andean highland at ~2100 m was the seabed of a vast ocean—so its rock layers preserve many prehistoric marine reptile and creature fossils. The museum's pride is a nearly complete, giant Kronosaurus (a Cretaceous large marine reptile, pliosaur) fossil—discovered in the 1970s by a local farmer, about seven meters long, preserved and displayed in situ where found, vividly showing the complete skeleton of this ancient marine giant—breathtaking. The museum also displays many other prehistoric fossils—ammonites, crinoids, shells etc.—witnessing the highland's geological change. Walking into this fossil museum, seeing the million-year-old marine giant fossils up close, imagining the highland's ancient ocean past—a unique, educational stop full of natural-history wonder, good for families.

✨ Highlights

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