Scientists say the dolphin is related to the dolphins of the Ganges River in India.
Lima, Peru:
Scientists on Wednesday unveiled the fossilized skull of a 16-million-year-old river dolphin unearthed in Peru that once swam in the waters of what is now the Amazon River. Its closest living relative is the South Asian river dolphin in India’s Ganges River.
Paleontologist Rodolfo Salas said the skull belonged to the largest dolphin known to inhabit South American waters, measuring 3 to 3.5 meters (9.8 to 11.4 feet) long. It was named Pebanista yacuruna, after Yacuruna, a creature from Peruvian mythology that lived in deep water.
“This dolphin is related to the dolphins of the Ganges River in India,” Salas said, adding that the dolphin found in Peru was much larger than its living relatives in Asia.
Salas said the ancestors of both species of dolphins once lived in the ocean.
“This allowed them to occupy large areas of ocean space off the coast of India and South America. These animals lived in freshwater environments in the Amazon and India. Sadly, they became extinct in the Amazon, but in India they survived,” Salas said added.
The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
Scientists discovered the fossil during a 2018 Napo River expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society.
The Amazon and Orinoco river basins are still home to the Amazon river dolphin (also known as the pink river dolphin or poto).
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