A well - continue juvenile skull late discovered in Ecuador belongs to a new metal money of ancient dolphinfish , which researchers are callingUrkudelphis chawpipacha . The fossil was discovered near Montañita in Santa Elena Province , a tropic region of Ecuador , and is believe to be between 24 to 26 million years previous . The inquiry has been bring out in the assailable - access journalPLOS One .
This is one of a few case of ancient dolphin remain to be see in the tropics ( the majority have been unearthed in more moderate region like South Carolina , Oregon , Hokkaido , and New Zealand ) and the very first to be found in Ecuador .
Researchers have dated the skull to theOligocene Epoch , an era that lasted between 33.9 and 22 million long time ago . During this full point , the Earth ’s clime cooled , earmark for greater variety of plant and zoology .
Many of the animals we see today started appearing around this time . Think other buck , camel , canid , eagle , and hawks . In the ocean , marine creatures capable to stand firm cooler temperatures began to move northwards and southwards , and away from the equator where more animals were able to hold up .
The skull was small and researchers say it belong to a calf . The shorter , wider bones in the front of the dodo differentiate it from other dolphin species in the area and reveal it is not only a new specie but a new genus – one that could be an ancient ancestor of the modern - sidereal day Platanistoidea ( or river dolphin ) .
Inan audience , the study ’s track author Yoshihiro Tanaka explain : " Urkudelphis chawpipacha dissent in that it has widely exposed feature known as frontals at the vertex in the top of the skull and a strongly pointed feature on one of the ear bones . This off-white , term the periotic , is often unique for a given species . "
If you ’re wonder how it catch its unusual name , Urkudelphis chawpipachais a mashup of four Hellenic and Kichwa words . Kichwa is one of the10 native languagesfound in Ecuador .
" Urku " is Kichwa for " mountain " – a shout - out to the site of uncovering ( Montañita ) . " Delphis " is Greek and is often include in the scientific names of dolphins . " Chawpi " and " patcha " are both Kichwa and mean " halfway " and " the world respectively " . " Middle of the world " is to indicate that it was located near the equator .
As the research worker point out , this find could also serve improve our apprehension of the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama . This is a little area of land mass linking the two Continent of America . Its emersion " had a major encroachment on oceanic and atmospheric current , and ultimately global clime and diversity,“explainedTanaka . The new fossil , he hopes , may provide new insights into when this consequence took place .
