Paleontologists from the University of Florida and the University of South Georgia (USA) have discovered in Panama a set of well-preserved fossils belonging to two crocodiles and a hippo-like mammal that were unknown until now to science. According to the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , the three species lived in Central America during the Miocene , approximately 20 million years ago, that is, before the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, when the continents of North America and South America were separated. by the ocean.
The research provides new information about the animals that lived during that time in subtropical areas and could help to better understand how climate change would affect the distribution of species.
According to the researchers, the most primitive species, Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus , could represent an evolutionary transition between alligators and alligators . "If you mix an alligator and one of the most primitive alligators, you would get an animal like this one, with an alligator body and flattened snout more similar to that of alligators," explains Alex Hastings, co-author of the work.
As for the new mammal found, it is a relative of the current hippopotamus, of the group of anthracothers, which they have named Arretotherium meridionale . About the size of a cow, it would have lived in semi-aquatic environments. And it is not ruled out that he is related in some way to whales.
