Cerro Ballena

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Adult and juvenile rorqual fossil skeletons.[1]

Cerro Ballena (lit. "Whale Hill") is a Chilean Late Miocene palaeontological site hosting remains of cetaceans.[1][2] It is located in the Atacama Desert along the Pan-American Highway a few kilometers north of the port of Caldera.[3] Besides cetaceans Cerro Ballena does also contains fossils of pinnipeds, sailfishes, aquatic sloths and marine invertebrate as well as trace fossils.[2][4] It has about 40 cetacean individuals all of them in relatively good state.[4] The cetaceans appear to have died at different times but due to the same causes: poisoning by toxins secreted by algae.[4] The site was discovered in 2011 and is protected by law since 2012.[2][4] It hosts an investigation centre.[2]

As of February 2014 scientists from Brazil, Chile and the United States were studying the site.[4]

Geologically Cerro Ballena is part of the Cerro Ballena Member of Bahía Inglesa Formation.[5]


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References[]

  1. ^ a b Pyenson, N. D.; Gutstein, C. S.; Parham, J. F.; Le Roux, J. P.; Carreño Chavarría, C.; Little, H.; Adam Metallo, A.; Rossi, V.; Valenzuela-Toro, A. M.; Velez-Juarbe, J.; Santelli, C. M.; Rubilar Rogers, D.; Cozzuol, M. A. and Suárez, M. A. (2014). "Repeated mass strandings of Miocene marine mammals from Atacama Region of Chile point to sudden death at sea". Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 281(1781): 20133316
  2. ^ a b c d Yacimiento Paleontológico Cerro Ballena (in Spanish), , retrieved May 30, 2014
  3. ^ "About", Cerro Ballena, retrieved June 2, 2014
  4. ^ a b c d e "Científicos explican tragedia que creó cementerio de ballenas en medio del desierto chileno", Radio Bío-Bío (in Spanish), February 26, 2014, retrieved May 30, 2014
  5. ^ Le Roux, Jacobus; Achurra, Luciano; Henríquez, Álvaro; Carreño, Catalina; Rivera, Huber; Suárez, Mario E.; Ishman, Scott E.; Pyenson, Nicholas D.; Gutstein, Carolina S. (2016). "Oroclinal bending of the Juan Fernández Ridge suggested by geohistory analysis of the Bahía Inglesa Formation, north-central Chile". Sedimentary Geology. 333: 32–49. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2015.12.003.

Coordinates: 27°02′33″S 70°47′43″W / 27.042385°S 70.795255°W / -27.042385; -70.795255

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