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Some believe they became disoriented and beached themselves, while others claim they were moved by a landslide and became trapped in a lagoon. But scientists remain baffled as to how exactly scores of whales ended up in a desert more than half a mile from the sea.
The skeletons of 75 whales, believed to be more than two millions years old, were unearthed next to one another, just yards apart, in one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric whales. Chilean scientists and researchers from the Smithsonian Institution are studying how the whales, many of them the size of buses, were found in exactly the same corner of the Atacama Desert in Chile.
The bones were unearthed near Caldera in June 2010 during a highway-widening project. So far, the fossils have been found in a roadside strip the length of two football fields. Experts say other groups of prehistoric whales have been found together in Peru and Egypt, but the Chilean fossils stand out for their staggering number and beautifully preserved bones. Of the 75 whales discovered so far, more than 20 are perfectly intact skeletons. Researchers believe there could be hundreds more waiting to be uncovered.
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