Researchers discover two unknown dolphins in Switzerland
About twenty million years ago, the Swiss plateau was flooded by the sea. Sharks, rays, whales and dolphins swam in the water. Zurich paleontologists have now identified two families of dolphins for the first time based on fossils.
The researchers led by Gabriel Aguirre-Fernández analyzed around 300 fossil remains of marine mammals kept in four Swiss museums. They were particularly interested in the inner ear bones because they allow the individual species to be classified, as the University of Zurich announced on Tuesday .
Fossil quality is poor
In this way, the paleontologists succeeded in clearly assigning specimens to three marine mammal families. As they report in the journal "PeerJ", the remains of kentriodontids, squalodelphinidae and physeteridae were found among the fossils.
While the latter, which are related to today's sperm whales, were already known to exist in Switzerland, the two families of dolphins were first identified in the sediments of the so-called Upper Marine Molasse.
According to the researchers, it is not possible to determine with certainty whether these are previously completely unknown species due to the poor quality of the fossils. (SDA)
