Read the complete story - As the Pan-American Highway snakes its way through Chile, it passes through a place called Cerro Ballena. The site is in the middle of the driest desert in the world, and just an hour away from the mine where 33 unfortunate miners were trapped a few years back. That particular stretch of road is vital for ferrying the mining equipment and extracted minerals that are fuelling Chile’s economic surge. For that reason, a construction company was tasked with expanding the highway from two lanes to four.
But at Cerro Ballena, they unearthed something odd: the skeleton of a whale.
And then another. And another.
Dozens of them; different species; adults and juveniles. The construction crews had unearthed an entire whale graveyard.
“I wouldn’t wish a whale skeleton on anyone,” says Nick Pyenson, an expert on prehistoric marine mammals from the Smithsonian Institution. “You’re going to have to dig a lot.”
