The Colombian Peace Agreement, at the origin of the identification of a new species of dinosaur

A herbivorous sauropod dinosaur, about 12 meters long, with a high neck and long tail, with a barrel-shaped body and a small head, was walking through what is now known as the Serranía del Perijá, in northern Colombia , 175 million years ago, as established by a group of scientists through a long history of studies and analyzes interrupted by the Colombian conflict.

In 1943, a geologist from the Tropical Oil Company accidentally discovered, in the middle of an oil exploration, a vertebra from the dorsal column of a dinosaur.

This vertebra was taken with some sediments to the United States and delivered to the scientific collections of the University of California, Berkeley. But scientists were unable to return to the place where the bone was found for a long time due to the outbreak of the conflict in Colombia.

Until… in 2018, two years after the signing of the Peace Agreement, a group of researchers from the Universities of the North, of Barranquilla, and the American University of Michigan, United States, were able to travel safely again the Serranía del Perijá. With the funding of a Fulbright grant, they tried to find new clues that would allow them to identify the species of dinosaur to which the fossil belonged.

Aldo Rincón Burbano, professor at the Department of Physics and Geosciences at the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, and one of the leaders of research in Colombia, recognized that “if the security conditions that the area offers today did not exist, thanks to the Agreement de Paz, it would have been very difficult to return to the field.”

In fact, he and the researchers who managed to name the dinosaur as the new species Perijasaurus lapazstayed in the former territorial space for training and reincorporation of ex-combatants of Tierra Grata, in the town of Manaure, in the department of Cesar, for nearly a year.

UN Verification Mission in Colombia.

Félix Arango, a 64-year-old former FARC combatant, was one of Professor Aldo Rincón’s guides.

The invaluable support of veterans

From there, and with the support of ex-combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who provided logistical services, lodging and even served as guidesthe researchers managed to return to the exact site where the fossil vertebra was unearthed in 1943.

Félix Arango, a 64-year-old ex-combatant from the FARC, who today works in an ecotourism project in Tierra Grata, accompanied them on long walks, looking for the point where the vertebra was found.

“I did not know that they were looking for a dinosaur, because they were studying pure rock; They had maps and it rained a lot, fortunately I know the area well, because the FARC’s 41st front operated there,” says Félix.

Without a doubt, the demobilization of the FARC, after the 2016 Peace Agreement, opened the way for scientists to visit the area and study the fascinating history of this Colombian dinosaur.

Comparing the fossil’s sediment in California with sediment at the nearby site where it was discovered confirmed the precise rock layer, and this allowed the researchers to date it to approximately 175 million years.

“We spent almost a year in the process, writing and searching, and although we did not find new fossils, We managed to get to the site and find the same sediment that the dinosaur vertebra found in 1943 had.. And it turned out to be a new genus and a new species. For that we also invited Martín Ezcurra, curator of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences; Harold Jiménez, a geologist at the EAFIT University in Medellín,” says Rincón.

Mark Guevara

Serrania del Perijá in Colombia.

the dinosaur of peace

So, they called the species Perijasaurus lapazthe first part of the name for the place where it was found, and the second as a tribute to the historic Peace Agreement.

Perijasaurus lapaz it is similar to other sauropods from this period found in Asia, North Africa, and southern Patagonia, which were smaller than later dinosaurs belonging to this group.

The research, which had its first publication in the journal Journal of Vertebrate Paleontologyon August 10, continues, and is awaiting new funding to continue discovering more about the dinosaurs that inhabited Colombia, not only in the Serranía del Perijá.

Mark Guevara

Professor Aldo Rincón and a group of students from the Universidad del Norte, carrying out field work

“We have to look for more fossils in rocks of the same age, and in other areas of the country, which include the Tatacoa desert, in Huila; the Girón area, in Santander; and in areas of Nobsa, in Boyacá,” Rincón Burbano told the United Nations Verification Mission, which verifies compliance with various points of the Peace Agreement in Colombia.

Félix, the ex-combatant who accompanied Rincón and his team, says that hopefully in these other investigations the experience of ex-combatants can also be told, who now, thanks to peace, play a different role for society.