Prehistoric giant dolphin discovered in Amazon by paleontologists
A giant new species of freshwater dolphin, dating back approximately between 24 and 16 million year, was recently discovered by a team of paleontologists in the Peruvian Amazon.
The team was from the University of Zurich.
The university said the newly identified species, dubbed Pebanista yacuruna, spanned between 3 to 3.5 meters. It was discovered during an expedition in 2018.
"We discovered that its size is not the only remarkable aspect," said lead author Aldo Benites-Palomino. "With this fossil record unearthed in the Amazon, we expected to find close relatives of the living Amazon river dolphin – but instead the closest cousins of Pebanista are the South Asian river dolphins (genus Platanista)."
The university recently released pictures showing an artistic representation of the dolphin in the Amazon river,a surface 3D model in dorsal view, paleontologist Aldo Benites-Palomino processing samples, and a group of paleontologists, and a local guide excavating on a 13-million-year-old fossil.
Storyful contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.