11:52 | Ocucaje (Ica region), Apr. 10.
Each discovery tells a different story, but the one of
skeletal remains of a quadrupedal whale —found in middle Eocene (42.6 mya) marine deposits of Peru— that combines terrestrial locomotion and swimming abilities, puts on display scientific facts hidden in the Peruvian deserts.
Peregocetus pacificus (meaning "the traveling whale that reached the Pacific Ocean") was found some 500 meters away from Media Luna (Half-Moon) Beach in southern Ica region.
The truth is that, according to its discoverer Mario Urbina Schmitt, the specimen should be called cholocetus, since it was found in Peru.
In 2007, Urbina saw a big fish in Ocucaje desert, and years later research reveals this is the first quadrupedal whale found in South America, and what is most astonishing: the species is a relative of the pig and the hippopotamus.
After finding a phalange, Urbina returned to Lima to tell his "partner" the paleontologist Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, with whom he came back to Ocucaje.
"Upon arrival in Paracas formation zone, we barely saw a phalange and a tooth associated to a jaw. We immediately knew it was a very primitive quadrupedal terrestrial animal," Salas-Gismondi stated.
The prize
The collection and recovery of the fossil was made possible in 2011 and was conducted by an international team.
After two days of hard work, they were in front of the most complete skeleton of a protocetid (an extinct cetacean) besides those from Asia and Africa.
"There is no fossil of a quadrupedal cetacean in South America," Salas-Gismondi told Andina news agency.
Recovered bones include sacrum, femur, tibia, (thoracic, lumbar, sacral and tail/caudal) vertebrae, phalanges, and calcaneus.
However, the prize was the ankle bone (one of the ankle joint, and another of the calcaneus), which "is important as it determines the links between a specimen and its descendants," Urbina remarked.
This assertion (that the quadrupedal whale is a relative of the pig) had been suggested by molecular data, but the fossils —practically laying on the surface of Ocucaje desert— confirmed it.
(END) JOT/RMB/MVB
Published: 4/10/2019