Posted on 12/11/2012 7:22:44 AM PST by lbryce
While working on a highway-widening project in the middle of South America's Atacama Desert, Chilean workers unearthed an eerie scene that had no business being more than a kilometer away from the ocean: a mass fossil graveyard containing more than 75 ancient whales, reports MSNBC.
Finding whale bones in the middle of the desert is strange enough, but scientists were quick to notice a deeper mystery. The fossils ended up right next to one another — some mere meters apart — as if to suggest that the whales all died at once, possibly during some cataclysmic tragedy. What could have happened?
"That's the top question," said Mario Suarez, director of the Paleontological Museum in the nearby town of Caldera.
According to Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the whales probably died between 2 million and 7 million years ago, during a time when the area would have been a "lagoon-like environment," much different than the desert landscape it is today. The real mystery, then, has less to do with how the whales got there, and more to do with why they died.
Could they have beached themselves after becoming disoriented in the shallows? Perhaps the lagoon had become separated from the sea by a landslide, earthquake or storm, trapping the whales within? Maybe there was something else about this lagoon that made it a whale trap. Right now, scientists aren't sure.
"There are many ways that whales could die, and we're still testing all those different hypotheses," said Pyenson. But, he added: "I think they died more or less at the same time."
Of the 75 whales that have been discovered so far, 20 of them represent perfectly intact skeletons, making the site one of the best preserved fossil beds from that time period along the west coast of South America. Most of the fossils are baleen whales that measure about 25 feet long, and one startling fossilized scene depicts two adult whales with a juvenile between them, a possible family group.
Researchers have also discovered fossils of other unusual creatures at the site, including a now-extinct dolphin that had two walrus-like tusks, an extinct aquatic sloth and an ancient seabird with a 17-foot wingspan. All in all, the site represents a remarkable snapshot of the ecosystem millions of years ago.
Although officials have asked that fossils that rest along the path of the widened Pan American Highway be moved out of the way, the Chilean government has declared the site a protected area.
"We have a unique opportunity to develop a great scientific project and make a great contribution to science," said Suarez. \
Blame it on global warming
No.
This is what happens when you invite the Black Eyed Children into your pod.
“So, if the Earth had a fever (algore) and the sea levels rose, this might have been under water?”
There was an ice age at one time. It receded. Why couldn’t there have been water in the dessert that eventually receded? Maybe the ice age hit the dessert and the whales couldn’t get past the ice and that’s where they died.
I am starting to like the unicorn theory more.
Whales unearthed in Chilean desert ping
I prefer bleu cheese dressing on wings myself.
The black-eyed children were the ones found burying the whales.
Where are those photos from?
The world is full of mass animal graves from the Genesis judgement. What is so surprising here?
Exactly!
There is no logical hole in his premise. All life on Earth perished in a blast of superheated water from deep within the Earth, called “the fountains of the great deep” in the description of the Genesis judgement.
This stuff is real hard for evoludiots to grasp I guess.
Well played, sir. Well played.
Can you give us a link to that list? Thanks.
If they had only listened to the environmentalists back then, and made Fred Flintstone and Barney shove catalytic converters up their behinds before starting to work every morning........
......those whales would be alive today!
See Dr Walt Brown’s “Hydroplate Theory”.
Sad that you actually had to explain this to someone. One would think that a Freeper was smarter than that.
>> “Makes sense...whales not being able to survive a flood ... of boiling hot water and rock from deep within the Earth.” <<
Better now?
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