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Researchers digging in Peru ’s Ocucaje desert have uncovered the skull of an enormous marine predator thought to be the root of modern whales and dolphins .
Four feet long ( 1.2 meters ) and lined with tongue - like teeth , the skull is likely a unexampled metal money ofBasilosaurus — a genus of ferocious marine mammalian that lived some 36 million years ago during the Eocene era , researcher from the National University of San Marcos ( UNMSM ) in Lima toldReuters . From neb to tag , the creature probably measured about 39 foundation ( 12 meters ) long , or about the size of a city bus topology .
The skull of the newfound Basilosaurus species sits on display at the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru.
For now , researchers are calling this ancient wolf the " Ocucaje Predator . " It wo n’t be officially named until the team write a scientific description of the species in a match - reviewed journal .
" It was a marine lusus naturae , " Rodolfo Salas , founding father and director of the paleontology department at the Museum of Natural story at UNMSM , tell Reuters and other media outlets at a news group discussion on March 17 . " When it was searching for its food , it for certain did a lot of hurt . "
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An artist’s rendering of what Basilosaurus looked like in the Eocene seas
According to the researchers , the Ocucaje Desert was once the bottom of an ancient ocean . Basilosaurusand its furious cousins swam these seas as solar apex predator from 41 million to 34 million age ago , gliding through the piddle with soundbox that resembled enormoussnakes , but with a big pair of flippers near their head .
" Basilosaurus " means " Billie Jean King lounge lizard , " and the beast ’s snaky skeleton was once misguided for a maritime reptile , consort toSmithsonian . Scientists now know thatBasilosauruswas a mammal — a fully aquatic cetacean , like the whales and dolphin that would follow it million of years later .
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Earlier whale antecedent were mammals who lived on land full - time , then graduallyevolvedto be semi - aquatic over million of year , Live Science antecedently report . Beginning about 55 million long time ago — 10 million years after the mass extinction that kill thedinosaurs — whale ancestors ultimately became fully aquatic , giving rising to the first cetaceans . Today , there are more than 90 species of cetaceans .
The Ocucaje desert is abundant in fossil , some date stamp back more than 42 million year , according to the researchers . Previous digging have uncovered other early whale ancestors , mahimahi , sharks and other wight of the ancient deep .
Originally issue on Live Science .
