Recently, an international team of experts found the remains of a giant freshwater dolphin in the Amazon, which is about 100 million years old.
According to media reports, scientists from the University of Zurich in Switzerland discovered the remains of a dolphin, which is the largest species of river dolphin ever discovered.
The extinct animal was said to have been kept in a museum since 1951 after a re-examination of these specimens. Scientists believe this species of dolphin was related to the endangered river dolphin in South Asia, providing evidence of the evolution of a new species.
The head fossil, about 22 cm long, was discovered by geologist Donald J. Miller in southeast Alaska. It was then part of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC for several decades.
Recent research researchers Alexander Boersma and Nicholas Penson say that this dolphin swam in sub-polar waters 2.5 million years ago. They say that this specimen belongs to a different species which they have named in zoological language as ‘Arctic Cara yakata’.
After examining the ancient skull and comparing it to other extant and extinct dolphins, researchers say it is a relative of the South Asian river dolphin Platanista. Scientists say how the different species of dolphins belonging to this group dwindled to the South Asian species that were once diverse and spread around the world is a mystery, but every little Tukka can help unravel this story.
Researchers have discovered the remains of a dolphin in the Amazon region of Peru. Its mouth is between 10 feet and 11.5 feet long for catching and eating prey.
The species belongs to the Platanistoidea group of dolphins that existed between 24 million and 16 million years ago, scientists said. Furthermore, these species entered the Amazon region due to the abundance of food sources.
Scientists at the Swiss University of Zurich have discovered a new species of giant extinct river dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon.
Science Advances magazine indicates that river dolphins are the rarest living whales, and most existing species are threatened with extinction.
During their expedition, the research team discovered the fossilized remains of the largest river dolphin ever found. Its length reached 3.5 meters.
Scientists named the new species Pebanista yacuruna in honor of the legendary aquatic inhabitants who inhabited the shores of the Amazon. Determining its age using radiocarbon dating showed that these dolphins lived in the Amazon 16 million years ago.
It was a system of lakes and swamps spread over a large part of the Amazon plain called Pipas. This landscape includes aquatic ecosystems. And wetlands and wilderness, extending through what is now known as Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.
But about 10 million years ago, the Pebas system began to decline in the face of the present-day Amazon region, which led to the beginning of the extinction of the giant dolphins, and then the system itself.
Paleontologists indicate that freshwater dolphins had advanced echolocation devices, which helped them determine direction in turbid waters.
