Zapatoca 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.

Climate

Paleontology

Fossils of Early Cretaceous animals from the Valanginian-Hauterivian Rosablanca Formation were collected near Zapatoca. Fossil material include fishes, particularly pycnodonts and hybodontiform Strophodus, ichthyosaurs, elasmosaurids. Remains of turtles, including Notoemys zapatocaensis, possible ornithocheirid pterosaurs and ammonite Saynoceras verrucosum also known from this location. There is also a report about metriorhynchoid crocodylomorph from these deposits. During the Valanginian and Hauterivian ages, here was a shallow sea where hybodontiforms and pycnodontiforms played an important trophic role as shell-crushing predators.

Notable people