Zapatoca | |
Nickname: | Ciudad Levitica (Levitical City |
Motto: | Libertad y Orden (Liberty and Order) |
Settlement Type: | Municipality and town |
Mapsize: | 260px |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Colombia |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Colombia |
Subdivision Type1: | Department |
Subdivision Name1: | Santander Department |
Established Date: | 1682 |
Area Total Km2: | 360 |
Area Total Sq Mi: | 139 |
Population Total: | 8929 |
Timezone: | Colombia Standard Time |
Utc Offset: | -5 |
Elevation M: | 1,720 |
Elevation Ft: | 5,500 |
Website: | www.zapatoca-santander.gov.co |
Zapatoca (pronounced as /es/) is a town and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia. It is at a high altitude and is a common stop between Bucaramanga and San Gil. It was built in the early 17th century by the Spanish conquistadores.
Fossils of Early Cretaceous animals from the Valanginian-Hauterivian Rosablanca Formation were collected near Zapatoca.[1] Fossil material include fishes, particularly pycnodonts and hybodontiform Strophodus, ichthyosaurs, elasmosaurids.[1] Remains of turtles,[1] including Notoemys zapatocaensis,[2] possible ornithocheirid pterosaurs[3] and ammonite Saynoceras verrucosum[2] [3] also known from this location. There is also a report about metriorhynchoid crocodylomorph from these deposits.[1] During the Valanginian and Hauterivian ages, here was a shallow sea where hybodontiforms and pycnodontiforms played an important trophic role as shell-crushing predators.[1]