Paleontologists have discovered the skull of a wild sea predator, an ancient ancestor of today’s whales. The skeleton of a killer whale once lived in the prehistoric ocean and was the size of a bus.
Scientists have found an ancient skeleton in a site that once covered part of present-day Peru.
Skeleton of a killer whale
They introduced a new Peruvian basilosaurus. It was a complete skull of an archaic whale that lived 36 million years ago. This was stated by one of the research scientists, a paleontologist mario urbina. The leader of the team that discovered the skeleton.
Urbina said the Basilosaurus was found in late 2021 in the Ocucaje Desert. In the Ica section, about 215 km south of Lima. This barren landscape was a shallow sea millions of years ago, and its dunes have yielded a large number of striking remains of primitive marine mammals.
When a roughly 36-million-year-old, well-preserved skull of a prehistoric fish was unearthed, it was literally a golden grail for local scientists. In addition, the fossil was saved in an almost intact state. She had long pointed teeth. This was stated by the head of the paleontology department of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, Rudolph Salas.
Big as a bus
Scientists believe that the ancient mammal was actually a Basilosaurus, which belongs to the family of aquatic cetaceans. These days we also include whales, dolphins and porpoises.
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Basilosaurus means “king lizard”. Although the prehistoric animal was not a reptile, it could move like a giant snake. Especially because of his long body.
The former apex predator probably measured about 39 meters in length. Like a four-story building or a big bus.
“It was a sea monster,” Salas said, adding that the skull, already on display at the university’s museum, may indeed belong to a new species of Basilosaurus.
“He certainly did a lot of damage when he was foraging,” Salas added.
Scientists believe that the first cetaceans evolved from mammals that lived on land about 55 million years ago. So it was about 10 million years after an asteroid hit near what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. He then wiped out most of the life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.