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Washington Post: While building the Pan-American Highway in Chile, construction workers found a treasure trove of fossilized marine mammals buried in the sandstone. The more than 40 skeletons dug up so far represent whales, seals, fish, and aquatic sloths. Nick Pyenson of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and colleagues have published the most comprehensive review to date of the astounding fossil find. They report that because the animals were found lying belly up in groups at four discrete levels, they probably died at sea from harmful algal blooms and washed ashore in four separate mass strandings over some 10 000 years. Before the fossils were excavated and shipped off to museums, “laser cowboys” were brought in to create a 3D digital record of the site.
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Layers of marine mammal fossils uncovered in Chile Free
26 February 2014