# 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 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 MSc. degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a thesis 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 lectures and conducts 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.
Páramo, together with fellow paleontologist Fernando Etayo, collaborated in describing the first dinosaur fossil found in Colombia, Padillasaurus leivaensis from the Paja Formation, close to Villa de Leyva, Boyacá.
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 appendicular remains from Northern tip of South America, 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 mosasaur genus found in layers of the Turoniense of the Villeta Formation from "Mosasauroids from Colombia."
Páramo published in Spanish, French and English. She died on 4 January 2025.
Páramo died on 5 January 2025, at the age of 61.

## Works

This list is a selection of works.

### Articles

* 2019 – A new late Aptian elasmosaurid from the Paja Formation, Villa de Leiva, Colombia
* 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