Venezuelan Oil Companies Dig Up 370 Million-Year-Old Fossils
- 11 years ago
While going about their regular excavation activities, oil companies in Venezuela have been unearthing fossils that are as much as 370 million years old.
While going about their regular excavation activities, oil companies in Venezuela have been unearthing fossils that are as much as 370 million years old.
Among them have been an armadillo as big as a car, a bus-sized crocodile, and a saber-toothed tiger.
When they’re found, many of the specimens end up at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research.
File cabinets in the institute’s small office contain things like a femur from a 6-ton, 25,000 year old mastodon.
The paleontologist who runs the institute’s Laboratory of Paleontology is reportedly so used to amazing prehistoric fossils flooding through the doors that he barely raises an eyebrow when yet another one arrives.
What he’s looking forward to is the day they start to bring in early human fossils.
He believes the day can’t be too far off, as spearheads have started to surface in some areas.
While Venezuela in general has a unique geology conducive to fossil – and oil – making, an area just north of the Orinoco River is where most of the paleontological action is.
The region is where the Atlantic Ocean originated about 200 million years ago.
While going about their regular excavation activities, oil companies in Venezuela have been unearthing fossils that are as much as 370 million years old.
Among them have been an armadillo as big as a car, a bus-sized crocodile, and a saber-toothed tiger.
When they’re found, many of the specimens end up at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research.
File cabinets in the institute’s small office contain things like a femur from a 6-ton, 25,000 year old mastodon.
The paleontologist who runs the institute’s Laboratory of Paleontology is reportedly so used to amazing prehistoric fossils flooding through the doors that he barely raises an eyebrow when yet another one arrives.
What he’s looking forward to is the day they start to bring in early human fossils.
He believes the day can’t be too far off, as spearheads have started to surface in some areas.
While Venezuela in general has a unique geology conducive to fossil – and oil – making, an area just north of the Orinoco River is where most of the paleontological action is.
The region is where the Atlantic Ocean originated about 200 million years ago.