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Stone in Cast
Photograph from Museo Paleontologico de Caldera via AP
Scientists preserve a prehistoric adult whale skeleton's rib cage and tail in plaster in Chile's Atacama Desert in 2010.
The fossil is 1 of 20 roughly five-million-year-old whales found in a roadside "graveyard" more than a half a mile (a kilometer) from the Pacific coast, experts announced late last month.
It's unknown why the whales were found together, said the Smithsonian Institution's Nicholas Pyenson, lead paleontologist on the excavation.
But possible reasons include a storm pushing them abruptly to shore, a red tide—a proliferation of microscopic organisms that release toxins in the water—poisoning them, and the whales beaching themselves in a group, said Pyenson, a grantee of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
Getting to the bottom of the mystery requires careful preservation and examination, beginning with encasing the fossils in protective plaster "jackets" (as pictured) for the trip to the lab—a skill the team hadn't quite mastered by the time this picture was taken, Pyenson explained.
Above, he said, "you can see the block containing the rib cage and the thinner segments capping the tail."
(Photos: New Leviathan Whale Was Prehistoric "Jaws"?)
—Angela Botzer
Published December 6, 2011
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Stick and Seal
Photograph from Museo Paleontologico de Caldera via AP
Scientists from the Museo Paleontologico de Caldera excavate and prepare part of a fossil baleen whale found in the prehistoric Chilean "graveyard," located at a site called Cerro Ballena ("whale hill"). Preservation includes piecing the skeleton together with special glue, then encasing the specimen in a plaster "jacket" for transport.
The geology of the fossil site suggests the whales died in what was most likely a shallow lagoon five million years ago.
"This environment is very similar to the small patches of sea grass communities found near the coast of Chile today," Pyenson said.
(Related picture: "Whale Found in Egypt Desert.")
Published December 6, 2011
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Dolphins in the Midst
Photograph courtesy Nicholas D. Pyenson
Two-million-year-old fossil dolphin ear bones (pictured) were also collected near the fossil-whales site.
The ear bones are among the local non-whale fossils that assist scientists in determining what ocean life was like during at the time the 20 whales died.
Dolphin ear bones "are among the densest biological tissues, a feature that increases their preservation potential in the fossil record," Pyenson said.
The ear bone specimens suggest the sea in the area—long since vanished—hosted dolphin species still living today, from the family Delphinidae, which includes bottlenose dolphins and killer whales.
Published December 6, 2011
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Roadside Attraction
Photograph from Museo Paleontologico de Caldera via AP
Pictured facing the camera, this relatively complete fossil baleen whale was excavated from the Cerro Ballena site in 2010.
The orientation of the whales' bodies in relation to the prehistoric coastline—which is, for now, a mystery—may someday tell us a bit about how they all ended up in one place, according to Pyenson.
If the skeletons are essentially parallel to what was then the shoreline, the whales may have died offshore and floated in on the tide. But if the whales are randomly oriented, he added, their deaths may have been due a storm or other event, and they might not have died at the same time.
(See whale-fossil pictures from National Geographic magazine.)
Published December 6, 2011
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Desert Blackout
Photograph courtesy Nicholas D. Pyenson
In a makeshift studio in the Atacama Desert, Smithsonian Institution staff scan one of the fossil whales to make a 3-D digital model that can be analyzed back at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
"We created a tent around the specimen because we wanted to use the high-resolution laser scanner and cut down on dust, wind, and exposure to the elements to create the most stable situation possible," Pyenson said.
"It was an impressive tent, and built in a matter of hours, using wood posts, metal wire, and thick black felt."
(Also see "Early Whales Gave Birth on Land, Fossils Reveal.")
Published December 6, 2011
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African Descendant?
Photograph courtesy Lisa Levin and Nicholas D. Pyenson
With its skull almost nosing the camera, a modern baleen whale skeleton emerges from the sands of the coast of Namibia.
"We think that the fossil baleen whales from the Cerro Ballena site are closely related to this one," Pyenson said.
Such a connection would underscore the successful "design" of the baleen whales, which has evolved surprisingly little since 20 unfortunate giants met their end five million years ago on a long-gone Chilean shore.
Next: whale-evolution interactive from National Geographic magazine >>
Published December 6, 2011
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