Gigantic prehistoric Dolphin found in rare fossil in Amazon

An ancient colossal dolphin has been unearthed in the Amazon, astonishing researchers with its immense size, CNN reported. 

This gigantic aquatic creature, about twice the size of a human, existed in freshwater lakes in the Peruvian Amazon about 16 million years ago.

Unlike its look-a-like species that exists today, it is more closely related to the early dolphins that dwelled in the Asiatic rivers rather than those in the Amazon nowadays. 

It has been uncovered by recent research articles in Science Advances that the dolphin skull proportion is at least 11 feet long, which is the largest freshwater dolphin species known by now.

The importance goes beyond a mere large-scale discovery and emphasises the unlocked key to freshwater dolphins’ evolutionary mysteries, which is argued to be relatively unrepresented in the fossil record. 

Akin to the Amazonian origins of its Peruvian name Pebanista yacuruna, this ancient cetacean exemplifies the Amazon's previous remarkable biodiversity by embodying the history of the Amazonian past ecosystems.

Similarly, the existing imagery draws attention to the harm faced by modern Amazonian river dolphins considering dangers of mercury pollution as a result of gold mining. 

Skeletal remains of Pebanista took as much part in the evolution of cetaceans as the present-day jungles. That accounts for the high level of care for freshwater systems and the urgent need for conservation measures to protect these fantastic creatures.