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Whale fossils found in driest desert on Earth

By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – Mon, Nov 21, 2011

Whale Fossil

Chilean researchers have discovered the fossilized remains of more than 75 prehistoric whales in the Atacama Desert, considered to be the driest place on the planet.

Researchers estimate that this group of whales gathered off South America's Pacific Coast more than 2 million years ago, and once they had beached and died, they melded into Chile's emerging desert landscape. More than 20 of the whale skeletons remain perfectly intact.

But archaeologists still can't say just how the whales, several of whom were roughly the size of a 25-foot school buses, ended up in the desert. "That's the top question," Mario Suarez, director of the Paleontological Museum in nearby Caldera, Chile, told the AP. The Chilean scientists have teamed up with the Smithsonian Institution to find out.

One hypothesis is that the whales became disoriented and beached themselves--at which point, natural shifts in the Earth's surface pushed their remains further from the shore over time. Other investigators suggest the whales may have become trapped in a local lagoon by a landslide or storm. "I think they died more or less at the same time," said Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Pyenson and Suarez are jointly leading the research.

Along with the whale fossils, the researchers have also discovered the skeletal remains of an extinct aquatic sloth, a seabird with a 17-foot wingspan, a sperm whale and a now-extinct dolphin with two walrus-like tusks. "We're very excited about that," Pyenson said in a telephone interview with the AP. "It is a very bizarre animal."

"In the first week, about six or seven whales appeared," Suarez said. "We realized that it was a truly extraordinary site. We have a unique opportunity to develop a great scientific project and make a great contribution to science," he said.

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66 comments

ROBERT • Florence, Alabama • 3 mths ago
Ever hear of the FLOOD ask Noah and his family. It rained fourty days and nights, flooded the whole Earth. Then the waters resceeded. Duh!
Oglaigh n h'Eirran • Atlanta, United States • 6 mths ago
Jesus, Mary and Joseph! The town I grew up in had a ridge chock full of trilobyte fossils.When they were alive they lived on the ocean floor. As a kid, my friends and I would go there when we were bored and dig out a few. We lived 60 miles from the coast. Anyone ever heard of plate tectonics? My God, have IQ's here fallen this far??!! God help us.
- James 6 mths ago
  What town was that? I'm thinking the whole west coast of north and south America should be like that.
- Katy 6 mths ago
  i think i grew up near you and quite agree
Paradux • New York, United States • 6 mths ago
Kirk to Scotty, I think you beamed those Whales to the wrong coordinates!
no_one_now • 6 mths ago
Wow, this is neato! Imagine a seagull with a 17-foot wingspan! I would never go to the beach...
- Anonymous Coward 6 mths ago
  that would be one scary bird. Now imagine a flock.
- no_one_now 6 mths ago
  Haha, that is utterly terrifying!! Even more terrifying would be a school of dolphins with tusks! Despite what they say about dolphins being so smart and helping humans, they have injured people on many occasions. If I saw one with walrus-like tusks coming at me, I would just pass out I think.
- GregU 6 mths ago
  I would not like to be pooped on by a 17 foot bird!
Aphid • 6 mths ago
Astounding! With all those other aquatic animals found alongside the whales, it certainly seems that the desert area must once have been part of the ocean. I applaud these scientists who are working so tirelessly to make sense of this world and its history.
- Moon Tiger 6 mths ago
  I totally agree , I mean it is more likely there used to be water there
- erik b 6 mths ago
  are you scientists?
- Wilkby 6 mths ago
  It proves geological shift.
More

Reply
StephS • Rohnert Park, United States • 6 mths ago
I think they mean Paleontologist, not Archaeologists
- Israel Ben david 6 mths ago
  both
PeterM • Dallas, United States • 6 mths ago
Interesting. All air-breathers.
John • Killeen, United States • 6 mths ago
Why would an archeologist be answering questions on this? Wouldn't a paleontologist have a better idea of how the whales were fossilized? Wouldn't a geologist have a better idea of how the fossils were thrust upward and inland to the Atacama?
- Zhimbo 6 mths ago
  Anna: BUZZZZZZ! Sorry, try again!
Charles • 6 mths ago
The Andes have gone up over 15,000 feet in 15 million years, even counting for erosion. Easily enough for someplace near today's coastal highway to have gone up more than the relatively small amount of a couple of hundred feet or so that global seal level was higher around 2 million years ago.
Gary Gilmore Jr • 6 mths ago
"But archaeologists still can't say just how the whales...ended up in the desert." I don't know either. But I'm guessing their final words were, "Nyah, I knew I should have made that left turn at Albuquerque".....
rico • 6 mths ago
cool!
margo • Santa Clarita, United States • 6 mths ago
"But archaeologists still can't say just how the whales..." Um, sorry...but archaeologists don't dig whales...Paleontologists would be the ones doing the digging in this case. Archeology refers to HUMAN cultural remains...
A Yahoo! User • San Jose, United States • 5 mths ago
Ay but lets see the pictures of those other animals!
GregU • Irvine, United States • 6 mths ago
Continental drift is accepted as a fact, not a theory any more. With technology that can measure the spreading of the Atlantic, the distance between New York and London can be measured as growing by about 5cm per year. Measurements in India show that the Indian plate is still moving northward into China, and that Mt Everest is still getting taller by about 1cm per year. Seismic studies create an image of Earth's core, mantle, and can map magma chambers of volcanoes. The hot spots that created the Hawaiian island chain, and the Yellowstone supervolcano record the movement of the Pacific plate and the North American plate over time. With so many examples, continental drift is accepted as fact just as widely as the fact that the earth orbits the sun.
Along the west coast of South America is a collision of oceanic and continental crust. The oceanic crust is subducted under the continental crust, creating the volcanoes of the Andes, and thrusting mountains upward as a result of that collision. No wonder that what was once sea floor and beach is lifted upward, along with fossils of a pod of beached whales. There should be no surprise here, just a few weeks ago there was a news story of a pod of whales beached in Australia. Anyone who has ever been to the beach knows that seals and other sea animals sometimes wash up onto the beach. If that carcass becomes covered with sand, it may eventually become a fossil that may be unearthed at a later date.
What I don't understand is why Yahoo is reporting this as a surprise and a mystery.
Anne • Charleston, United States • 6 mths ago
I'm with the plate tectonics
Yvette • Orange, United States • 6 mths ago
A now-extinct dolphin with two walrus-like tusks? Because it wasn't extinct until NOW?
James • Tampa, United States • 6 mths ago
South America was once over by Africa. In its travels westward by plate tectonics to where it is now don't you think it could have dredged up some pacific ocean floor?
CharlieS • Lynn, United States • 6 mths ago
"and then God created all manner of whales and tusked dolphins and (Jesus Christ...what are you doing!??! Put them in the oceans Son...IN THE WATER!!! Tell you what...I'll send you down to fix the rest of the mess later.....but for now...well....we'll just leave those one's there to mess with the minds of mankind....hmmm...speaking of which...) and platypus..."
Carrie • Cicero, United States • 6 mths ago
So thats where Kirks whales went!
RBB • 6 mths ago
200 foot tsunami would do it easy

Whales dolphins sharks the entire ocean of fish no fishing pole needed for miles inland LOL

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