Amazing: Paleontologists discovered a 36 million years old whale fossil in the dessert of Peru

Olivier Lambert, a paleontologist at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels and his team traveled to Peru and started to explore the area. As part of the study, they conducted excavations and found the Mystacodon selenensis skeleton from the Pisco Basin, Ica Region on Peru’s southern coast, reports Scientist American.


This discovery is extremely important for earth’s history as it allows scientists to fill in the gap of the baleen whale’s evolution. The recently discovered Mystacodon selenensis fossil is 36.4 million years old.

The fossil size is estimated to be 4 meters long, the shape of its skull, pelvic bone, and other characteristics fit more with the descriptions of an ancient whale, rather than a modern one.