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APR

Peruvian scientists say that the quadrupedal whale is related to the pig

Each finding gives us different hypotheses. However, for the remains of the quadrupedal whale found in the middle of the ocean and now stored in the deposits of the Navy of Peru.

The Peregocetus pacificus (meaning “the traveling whale that reached the Pacific Ocean”) was found about 500 meters from the shore at Media Luna Beach in the southern region of Ica. According to Mario Urbina Schmitt, the whale should have been named Cholocetus because it was found in national territory.

Urbina points out that for the year 2007 in the Ocucaje desert I saw a large fish, years later the investigations showed that this species is the first quadrupedal whale found in South America and the most fascinating thing is that the species is a relative of the pig and hippopotamus .

After finding a phalanx, Urbina returned to the area of Ocucaje with his partner the paleontologist Rodolgo Salas-Gismondi. When they reached the Paracas area, as soon as they saw the phalanx and the teeth that accompanied a mandible, they immediately deduced that it was a very primitive quadruped animal.

The award

An international team carried out the restoration and stockpiling of fossil remains in 2011. After several days of work, they found the most complete skeleton of a protoetid (an extinct cetacean) in addition to those of Asia and Africa.

In statements by Salas-Gismondi, “There is no fossil of a quadruped cetacean in South America”. The recovered bones include vertebrae, phalanges and calcaneus sacrum, femur, tibia (thoracic, lumbar, sacral and tail / caudal).

However, the prize was the bone of the ankle (one of the ankle joint and another of the calcaneus), which “is important since it determines the links between a specimen and its descendants,” said Urbina.

This statement (that the quadrupedal whale is a relative of the pig) had been suggested by molecular data, but the fossils, which are found practically on the surface of the Ocucaje desert, confirmed this.

Source: Andina

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