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Palaeontology

New prehistoric dolphin species discovered

By T.K. Randall
August 18, 2016 · Comment icon 7 comments

The new dolphin is a relative of the South Asian river dolphin. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Dennis Otten
The previously unidentified species would have thrived in sub-arctic marine waters 25 million years ago.
Believed to be a relative of today's South Asian river dolphin, the new species, which has been named Arktocara yakataga, thrived during the late Oligocene epoch - a period in Earth's history during which ancient whales were known to have diversified in to two distinct groups.

The fossil of this new dolphin, which had been situated at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, was actually found back in 1951 by geologist Donald J Miller.
It wasn't until scientists recently re-examined the find that the new species was finally identified.

"It's a lovely skull, which is probably the first thing I noticed about it," said paleontologist Alexandra Boersma. "All the time, we find new things in the collections that answer old questions."

Source: BBC News | Comments (7)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Rocky Evans 8 years ago
I think it`s cool that they found it. 
Comment icon #2 Posted by MJNYC 8 years ago
Nice! I hope we can save the endangered river dolphins.
Comment icon #3 Posted by MysteryMike 8 years ago
Everytime...Everytime I read an article like this I expect it to be a living animal found...
Comment icon #4 Posted by Clair 8 years ago
Me too! Anyway, since we don't have the real thing, here's what it's imagined to have looked like:
Comment icon #5 Posted by BeastieRunner 8 years ago
It kind of looks like a sawfish meets an ichthyosaurus.
Comment icon #6 Posted by Eldorado 8 years ago
I reckon it looks like Flipper meets Barry Manilow.
Comment icon #7 Posted by Sameerr 8 years ago
That drawing slightly looks like amazon river dolphins. Anyway,dolphins are amazing.


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