France – a 17 million year old whale fossil commonly known as Ziphiidae has been uncovered by researchers. The whale which was found 450 miles away from the inland in a 2,000 feet high plateau has left researchers wondering how it managed to get to that particular point. However, some suggestions indicate that it may have swum along a river before it finally perished and became a fossil over the years after being unable to turn while in the water.
According to the researchers, the discovery of this fossil is likely to provide significant information on human evolution. This is being justified by the fact that by the time the whale was perishing in the river, much of the ground was near the sea level which resulted to moist conditions and the whole region was under the cover of jungles and forests.
A vertebrate paleontologist from Southern Methodist University, Louis L. Jacobs has explained that climate only became drier prompting forests to give way to grassland after the continent began to rise up. This resulted to primitives adapting to the dry country and grasslands hence the evolvement of human evolution as the primitives began to walk upright.
“There is a lot of information to put together from this whale”. Louis who is the lead author of the study stated. “For example it will reveal the starting point of the uplift of the content which is said to have changed the climate that eventually led to discovery of humans”. The paleontologist further narrated.
The fossil that apparently is said to belong to the Ziphiids species has been missing for decades after its first discovery in 1964. Zilphiids species is said to live it the open oceans. This is the same thing that their ancestors did. They are known to be the world’s top marine predators and have a record of being able to dive deeper under the waters something that many air – breathing animals may not accomplish.