03:36A 5,000-year-old bottle-nosed dolphin skull discovered by two local fishermen in Argentina has been put on display at the San Pedro Paleontological Museum.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows the museum director working with the centuries-old skull as visitors watch on.
Museum Director Jose Luis Aguilar described the discovery and explained the significance of the skull - 60 centimetres long and 30 centimetres wide, belonging to 'Tursiops truncatus'.
"It is an animal that lived in this area when the last marine ingression occurred, in the middle of the Holocene. It is a time in which, on a global scale, there was a period of warming that lasted thousands of years. The polar ice melted, and that caused the sea level to rise several metres above where it is at present," he explained.
"One of the clues we used in determining the age of the animal using the naked eye we found when cleaning the skull. Inside one of the cavities of the skull, we found a preserved sea shell of the genus Erodona mactroides, which are molluscs. Small white shells with a length of about 2 cm are indicators of Holocene marine ingression and the desert water salinity level," he continued.
Aguilar noted that the finding is a complete skull of a 'very well-preserved animal' which allows scientists to learn more about marine life, particularly cetaceans, or sea mammals of that time.
Flipping awesome! 5,000 year old dolphin skull goes on display in San Pedro
A 5,000-year-old bottle-nosed dolphin skull discovered by two local fishermen in Argentina has been put on display at the San Pedro Paleontological Museum.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows the museum director working with the centuries-old skull as visitors watch on.
Museum Director Jose Luis Aguilar described the discovery and explained the significance of the skull - 60 centimetres long and 30 centimetres wide, belonging to 'Tursiops truncatus'.
"It is an animal that lived in this area when the last marine ingression occurred, in the middle of the Holocene. It is a time in which, on a global scale, there was a period of warming that lasted thousands of years. The polar ice melted, and that caused the sea level to rise several metres above where it is at present," he explained.
"One of the clues we used in determining the age of the animal using the naked eye we found when cleaning the skull. Inside one of the cavities of the skull, we found a preserved sea shell of the genus Erodona mactroides, which are molluscs. Small white shells with a length of about 2 cm are indicators of Holocene marine ingression and the desert water salinity level," he continued.
Aguilar noted that the finding is a complete skull of a 'very well-preserved animal' which allows scientists to learn more about marine life, particularly cetaceans, or sea mammals of that time.
A 5,000-year-old bottle-nosed dolphin skull discovered by two local fishermen in Argentina has been put on display at the San Pedro Paleontological Museum.
Footage captured on Wednesday shows the museum director working with the centuries-old skull as visitors watch on.
Museum Director Jose Luis Aguilar described the discovery and explained the significance of the skull - 60 centimetres long and 30 centimetres wide, belonging to 'Tursiops truncatus'.
"It is an animal that lived in this area when the last marine ingression occurred, in the middle of the Holocene. It is a time in which, on a global scale, there was a period of warming that lasted thousands of years. The polar ice melted, and that caused the sea level to rise several metres above where it is at present," he explained.
"One of the clues we used in determining the age of the animal using the naked eye we found when cleaning the skull. Inside one of the cavities of the skull, we found a preserved sea shell of the genus Erodona mactroides, which are molluscs. Small white shells with a length of about 2 cm are indicators of Holocene marine ingression and the desert water salinity level," he continued.
Aguilar noted that the finding is a complete skull of a 'very well-preserved animal' which allows scientists to learn more about marine life, particularly cetaceans, or sea mammals of that time.