Marine fossils unearth story about Panama's deep past

Date:
July 12, 2023
Source:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Summary:
New fossil mammal specimens from Caribbean Panama suggest ongoing
marine interchange during the final stages of formation of the
isthmus connecting North and South America.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Between 6.4 and 5.8 million years ago, most of the land bridge that
connects North and South America had already emerged and the channels connecting both Pacific and Atlantic oceans were shallow. Recent fossil discoveries in the northern Panama Canal area suggest that marine species interchange persisted across these shallow waters during the final stages
of formation of the isthmus.

In 2017 and 2019, Aldo Benites-Palomino was studying fossils collected
in Caribbean Panama, when he came across some unexpected specimens. He
was a biology student in Peru', where his training had been very
classical. As an intern and later a fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute (STRI), his mindset shifted. His mentor, STRI staff scientist and paleobiologist Carlos Jaramillo, encouraged his students
to change their focus when looking at fossils: instead of thinking about specimens or methods, to think about the questions that the fossils
could help answer.

"I wanted to go to STRI because it is the most important tropical biology center in the world," said Benites-Palomino. "There I was able to learn
a lot about the way biology and ecology is done in the modern world."
The fossil remains belonged to small-sized cetaceans, a group of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins, and the specimens were new for
the region. Most of them had been collected by Carlos de Gracia from STRI
and Jorge Velez Juarbe from the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History,
both co-authors in a new paper published in Biology Letters. In the
article, Benites-Palomino and his colleagues go beyond describing the specimens, they also unearth the story they reveal about the isthmus'
deep past.

The fossils belonged to the Late Miocene, around 6.4 to 5.8 million
years ago, when the final stages of formation of the isthmus had already started. This event affected oceanic waters and marine currents across
the globe and triggered speciation events, where species separated by the
land bridge developed their own unique characteristics on either ocean.

However, these cetaceans found in Caribbean Panama shared similarities
with other Late Miocene species from the North and South Pacific Ocean, particularly the Pisco Formation in Peru, suggesting that some organisms
were still able to disperse via the shallowing seaway at a time when
deep water interchange between both oceans was no longer occurring.

The lack of fossil marine mammals from the western Caribbean has thus far hampered understanding of the region's deep past, so these new findings
help strengthen current knowledge regarding the connectivity between the Pacific and Caribbean marine faunas during the final phases of formation
of the isthmus.

"The marine vertebrate fossil record of Panama has been barely explored,"
said Carlos Jaramillo, STRI staff scientist and co-author of the
study. "There are still many specimens that need to be studied and many
more still in the rocks waiting to be found."
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Story Source: Materials provided by
Smithsonian_Tropical_Research_Institute. Original written by Leila
Nilipour. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


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* Collecting_fossils ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Aldo Benites-Palomino, Jorge Ve'lez-Juarbe, Carlos De Gracia, Carlos
Jaramillo. Bridging two oceans: small toothed cetaceans (Odontoceti)
from the Late Miocene Chagres Formation, eastern Caribbean (Colon,
Panama).

Biology Letters, 2023; 19 (6) DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0124 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230712165206.htm

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