Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Scientists have discovered a 36-million-year-old skull of a huge fearsome marine monster that was lurking in the prehistoric oceans of Peru.

Based on preliminary studies researchers suggest this ancient mammal was a basilosaurus, part of the aquatic cetacean family, whose contemporary descendants include whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

The fossil remains of a Basilosaurus skull found in Ocucaje, Peru at a museum in Lima on March 17. PH๏τo: AFP

The well-preserved skull was dug up intact last year from the bone-dry rocks of Peru’s southern Ocucaje desert, with rows of long, pointy teeth, Rodolfo Salas, chief of paleontology at the Peru’s National University of San Marcos, told reporters at a news conference.

“Basilosaurus means “king lizard,” although the animal was not a reptile, though its long body might have moved like a giant snake.

The one-time top predator likely measured some 12 meters (39ft) long, or about the height of a four-story building,” the South Morning China Post reports.

“It was a marine monster.  When it was searching for its food, it surely did a lot of damage adding the skull, which has already been put on display at the university’s museum, may belong to a new species of basilosaurus. When it was searching for its food, it surely did a lot of damage,” Salas explained.

Members of the media gather around a 36 million-year-old Basilosaurus whale fossil discovered in the Ocucaje desert, at the Museum of Natural History, in Lima, Peru March 17, 2022. Credit: Reuters

Scientists believe the first cetaceans evolved from mammals that lived on land some 55 million years ago, about 10 million years after an asteroid struck just off what is now Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, wiping out most life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.

According to Salas, when the ancient basilosaurus died, its skull likely sunk to the bottom of the seafloor, where it was quickly buried and preserved.

“Back during this age, the conditions for fossilization were very good in Ocucaje,” he said.

Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer