Fossil of Ambulocetus, an extinct whaleWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, GHEDOGHEDO
Late last year, construction workers cutting a road through the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile stumbled upon a major paleontological find when they unearthed several complete whale skeletons that had been buried beneath layers of rock. Now, researchers from the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, are scrambling to preserve and catalog dozens of fossil finds before construction of the roadway begins sometime next month.
Since October, paleobiologist Nick Pyenson of the Smithsonian has been leading a team that's trying to learn as much as possible about the fossils and the site in the limited window of time. In two trips to the site, Pyenson and his colleagues have found more than 20 complete whale skeletons mingled with other types ...
