Smithsonian scientists discover new species of ancient dolphin
Smithsonian scientists discover new species of ancient dolphin
By Sadie Dingfelder September 1 at 7:00 AM
On the coast of Panama in 2011, Smithsonian paleobiologist Nick Pyenson raced against the incoming tide to remove a fossil embedded in the rocky shore. As Pyenson and his team dug a trench around the fossil, Pyenson guessed that they were uncovering bones from an ancient marine mammal known as the shark-toothed dolphin. He was wrong.
“Once we got it back to D.C., and I got a close look at it, I could tell it was like nothing I’d ever seen before,” Pyenson says.
No one had, it turns out. The fossil represents a newly discovered genus and species, according to a study published today in the scientific journal PeerJ. Dubbed Isthminia panamensis, the marine mammal poses a bit of a mystery. Its elongated snout and small eyes are similar to that of the Amazon river dolphin, but this dolphin clearly lived in the open ocean.
“We think it lived in the channel that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans before the isthmus of Panama formed,” Pyenson says.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2015/09/01/smithsonian-scientists-discover-new-species-of-ancient-dolphin/
