New Dolphin Species Discovered Thanks To Old Smithsonian Fossil

Dolphins are known for their playful nature, but they usually live far out in the sea for everyone to enjoy them on a daily basis. However, it seems that they haven't always been the sea-dwellers we knew them to be.

New dolphin species discovered...in a museum https://t.co/Rqzp35o8f3 pic.twitter.com/x5MPT4bY1m

— Newser (@Newser) August 16, 2016

Researchers at the Smithsonian said that they were able to identify a new species of river dolphin, thanks to a fossil that had been in the museum for years. Discovered in southeast Alaska in 1951 by the US Geological Society's Donald J Miller, the specimen was described as a partial skull measuring nine inches long, and was said to be related to the South Asian River Dolphin.

According to Fox News, the team was able to determine that the fossil belonged to a dolphin that lived 25 million years ago. It did, however, represent a new genus and species and was named Arktocara yakataga - a nod to its northern origins.

"Arktocara is derived from the Latin for 'the face of the north,' while yakataga is the indigenous Tlingit people's name for the region where the fossil was found," the study said.

Today, the South Asian River Dolphin is the last of its species in what was once a large group of dolphins. They are known for swimming on their side and their inability to see. Like bats, they use echolocation to get around the waters in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and are the only species to live in fresh water.

The geographic distance between the River Dolphin and the Arktocara is what makes it especially noteworthy for researchers. Alexandra Boersma, a researcher with the team shared, "Considering the only living dolphin in this group is restricted to freshwater systems in Southeast Asia, to find a relative that was all the way up in Alaska 25 million years ago was kind of mind-boggling."

Based on the age of the rocks where the fossil was found, scientists estimated that the fossil came from the late Ologocene epoch - roughly around the same time the whales diversified into two groups. Boersma said, "It's the beginning of the lineages that lead toward the whales that we see today. Knowing more about this fossil means that we know more about how that divergence happened."