How the Andes Mountains Might Have Killed a Bunch of Whales
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
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At a site known as Cerro Ballena or Whale Hill, there are more than 40 skeletons of marine mammals -- a graveyard of ocean life dating back 6.5 million to 9 million years ago, in the Late Miocene Epoch. But the identity of the killer that they finally settled on might surprise you.
Special thanks to the Smithsonian Institute (www.si.edu/) and Pyenson ND et al. 2014 (royalsocietypu...) for making their photos and graphics about Cerro Ballena available to us.
And thank you to these paleoartists for allowing us to use their wonderful illustrations:
Ceri Thomas: / alphynix
Fabrizio de Rossi: / artoffabricious
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Anthony Callaghan, Anton Bryl, Jeff Graham, shelley floryd, Laura Sanborn, Henrik Peteri, Zachary Spencer, Chandler Bass, Richard Ohnemus, Joao Ascensao, Andrey, Ben Thorson, Marcus Lejon, Ilya Murashov, Nathan Paskett, Jerrit Erickson, Merri Snaidman, David Sewall, Gabriel Cortez, Jack Arbuckle, Kevin Griffin, Robert Noah, Philip Slingerland, Todd Dittman, James Bording, Eric Vonk, Robert Arévalo, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Jon Monteiro, Missy Elliott Smith, Jonathan Wright, Gregory Donovan, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, PS, Maria Humphrey, Larry Wilson, Hubert Rady, John Vanek, Tsee Lee, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Matt Parker, Tyson Cleary, Case Hill, Stefan Weber, Betsy Radley
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References: docs.google.co...
Paleontology has to be The most ultimate detective work ever
I imagine its not easy working with thousand to million year old evidence
Paleontologists are just grave robbers with a degree
@@billiamg8032 That's archaeologists
Ah, sorry
And the most boring and uneventful.
This channel alone is what has made me want to study evolutionary biology.
Sean Powell it’s so well presented. When I read Sapiens years ago it got my imagination going regarding the giant sloths and marsupial lions etc
Me too
Same
hear hear!
I study evolutionary biology!it's awesome
Andes Mountain, never forget, never forgive.
*angry whale noises*
Good chocolate though
The Andes are innocent!!!!
*whale twerks aggresively*
the baleen whales did not kill themselves!
that's it, officer. that's the mountain range
pizzadude64 andes mountains, you’re under arrest for whale slaughter and for the aridification of the Pacific coast.
Alaskan bull worm
You’ll never take me alive! *proceeds to land slide*
this made me laugh out loud
@Nug U i saw it.. I saw it happen.. I'll never forget what that monster has done
@Nug U Officer: "I see. In that case, Earth - you're under arrest"
*Whales doing their thing*
Earth tilting a little: So you have chosen death
This comment deserves a lot more likes
Jungler doing their thing
Laners tilting a little: So you have chosen death
Omae wa mô... shindeiru!
NANI
@@dougthedonkey1805 It does not. At all.
You had me at "mountains" and "whales".
Same
Totally
“So what was it that killed all those marineanimals? Was it -- and i am sorry to use this word now -- a pandemic?“ --- got me
Sounds like a recipe for a Gojira album.
great to find you here lol
As a Chilean person, i have to say THANK YOU for putting us into the paleontology map!. It would be nice if my country put a little more interest in this discipline
now after you know what happened, arrest those whale killing mountains! :p
I met a man who is a Paleontologist and his work took him to Chile.....he said there is soo much more to discover there and vastly untouched compared to other countries. He calls it a gold mine for his work. He said Chileans are wonderful people he has helped 2 younger people get their college work done in his field and said he is very proud of that and wants to help others in Chile. One of them is now is his assistant in the field and his assistant made a big find last year that is now known all over in his field. One big find and you are an instant star in their field. I myself, am fascinated at all the world's best telescopes are built in this now famous Chilean desert which some parts has NEVER seen rain in it's history. A desert can be surprising & captivating....I know..... I have lived on one in the past in Scottsdale, AZ for many years.
Especially compared to just how much work is done digging up fossils in your neighbor Argentina
@@jancukasu What if they resist arrest and erupt
"The identity of the killer might surprise you." *looks at video title*, *narrows eyes*
!!!SURPRISE!!!
This presenter gets 5 gold stars for pronouncing cerro ballena correctly about 20 times
Cherry banana
cherro baienah
Zedoh bayayna
I'm Argentinian and offended because he didn't pronunce Cerro bashena
Chilenos have left the chat
This is why I love paleontology. Because of some fossils, we know about literally a single day on which a bunch of whales died and washed up on a beach in Chile, and then it happening 3 more times, several thousand years apart... and all of this occurring tens of millions of years ago before humans even existed. Incredible.
I'd love to learn more about the Spinosaurus tail fossil that was just written up.
Oh yes please!
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Where?
@@ekulerudamuru Nature I think, they will surely make a video on scishow. Basically, Spino confirmed giant acquatic croc, they found tail bones that clearly show it was flattened and adapted to swim like a triton or a croc, actually even more so than a crocodile
That would be interesting
Last time I was this early oxygen was still poisonous to life.
Last time I was this early e!=mc2
Last time I was this early there were only darkness...
The last time I was this early, it was called "premature", and I was told not to worry; it happens to everyone.
What if oxygen is still poisonous and that's why we die of old age
"EONS" ago!
I'm so grateful for you guys uploading throughout this whole pandemic
Wow, I'm Chilean and this was a nice surprise for me! Unfortunately there is very little science information for the general public here. Besides, I live in the middle part of the country, Chile I very very long, I'm about 2000 km. south of the Atacama desert. Thank you very much for sharing this.
Chile possibly the longest country, isn't it?
si quedaste metido acerca de cerro ballena hay un excelente documental acerca del trafico de fosiles en esa area y acerca del descubrimiento del pelagornis, un ave voladora de la epoca. buscalo como trafico de fosiles chile
Two thousand km south of Caldera, cerca Hill of the Whales, is not central Chile but the south, in Aysen.
@@kim7990 actually brazil is the longest, but tbh chile should definetively have this award lol
Hello from Georgia, USA hope all is well in Chile.
Hideo Kojima: "This is the first "Death Stranding" type game"
Whales and other marine life 6.5 million to 9 million years ago: "hold my beer"
The Earth was the first "strand" type game
Stop using that stupid, tired meme that you don't even understand how to use correctly.
... A good game, though.
Everyone knows Earthworm Jim is the first "strand" type game.
KNACK IS BACK BAYBEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, PBS Eons and all of PBS Digital Studios, for your easy-to-understand and equally entertaining videos. In this new normal society where social distancing is key, RUclips channels that make learning easier for students are heroes of the educational system. Looking forward to more and more great videos!
Imagine just finding a bunch of giant whale fossils right off the road shoulder.
@Ummer Farooq - uh, okay?
the bones were discovered because they were widening the route 5 that runs from the border with peru to chiloé, so they stopped the works ont he route to take the bones out first... chilean out!
You hear about the whale smell found in downtown LA 😂😂😂 some dudes where digging out the foundation for a building and just smacked a whole whale
@@smokinjodak9844 What they found a whale in La da hell ?
My city is 1 kilometer away from that road and you can find different stuffs - from Megalodon teeth if you are lucky, to mollusk shell (from thousands of years ago) literally everywhere (less than 1 meter or even centimeters deep).
Fantastic episode! I'm a high school science teacher, and with all the extra time we have right now I'm taking a deep dive into standards and curriculum. The conclusion to this episode fits one NGSS standard perfectly. It reads: "Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems." I'd love to see a lesson plan that took each individual piece of evidence and laid it out for students to "discover," maybe in individual groups, and only be able to build the full picture by connecting each other's "discoveries" together... This subject would make a great basis for that type of lesson.
That’s a great idea! Not only would it be very informative, it also sounds like it’d be a lot of fun for the students! You sound like a great teacher. Props to you for putting that kind of thought and care into your lessons.
That sounds like the kind of lesson I wish I had in high school. I would 100% learn more that way!
fellow chilean here, I love how interesting our country is, yet none of this is taught in our schools :/
Exacto, yo nací en Atacama y me habría encantado aprender sobre la historia evolutiva de donde vivía :( ni siquiera en clases de ciencias nos mencionaban cosas así
What are the subjects taught in your schools?
chronus1997 I raised in Chile and went to local schools we were taught colonial latin american history including the paraguayan war, recent chilean and argentinian history and we were also taught basic evolution in science class but nothing about this :(
What do you expect? You go to college to learn this stuff. Do you think I learn about the Mississippi river delta and the Hudson River valley effects in the land and prehistoric life in high school? No, you go to college and become a biologist or a geologist.
@@KanBig Or watch Scishow
I like how you were trying to stifle another laugh at the "Peaked your interest" part.
FranBunnyFFXII timestamp?
@@theperfectmix2 8:33 that was actually the second pun. The first was at 8:21
Wonderful!!!... i live in Chile, and i always have been fascinated about the Atacama desert, its salt flats and all the misteries around it.
I just found it exasperating that the best explanation was glazed over and some claim by a geologist shelved the only real explanation, tsunamis. What I have learned recently has made me question literally everything geologist have to say. Most of it is little more than pseudoscience but no one outside of the field questions them and inside the field it's all egos. Even something as basic as fossil formation is purely opinion and has never been proven as a process. I'd say 90% of what you consider established science are theories that are backed up by little or no evidence.
I'm not happy with science right now. I spent a great deal of time and effort assembling a mountain of evidence related to all of this and tried to present it but was shot down because my evidence contradicted dogma. No other reason, but evidence that contradicts dogma is routinely ignored and I can prove this fact. Science has gotten so far off the true path I've condoned burning all science books, picking up an apple, dropping it and focus on figuring out why it fell then once you understand that thoroughly, then you move on! We do that and in a 100 years we colonize the solar system and in a 1000 years we colonize nearby solar systems. Keep going the way we're going? Smart money says we don;t make it to the end of the century.
Hey PBS Eons, I would love to watch (suggestions)
1. Evolution of Spinosaurids
2. History of Spinosaurus Fossil
3. Prehistoric Hunting (Early Hominids/Homo Sapiens)
4. Life Among the Early Birds
5. Life Among Early Mammals
6. Life before Dinosaurs (Permian Period)
Would love to see these videos. Keep them up.
Yes, I would love to see all of those.
They already did one on spinosarus
@@burtmacklin1939 yes, but a new, nearly complete fossil of a tail was just found and written up, so exciting.
@@ajgensel9359 That was what I wanted to see.
What about how insects evolved
every time I see this guy his forearms have grown another inch
Gotta get fit, especially in times like this
Being quarantined has also increased my forearm size 10 fold
@Elizabeth Frantes I'm just gonna pretend i never read that
Has anyone else noticed his package tho? cause its always PROMINENT 🤤
Lmao welcome to the rabbit hole of RUclips comments
He was clearly jumping at every chance of pronouncing "Cerro Ballena" and seemed quite proud of it. (And it sounded pretty great, if a below-average Spanish speaker such as I may say so.)
We pronounce Ballena as Balyena with l and y in Filipino Accent.
As a fluent Spanish speaker, I can say you're 100% correct on that. He said it flawlessly
The history of grass! And the evolution of worms!
J.M. Obyx thats actually a good idea
+1
And the Algae Bloom that gassed giants.
The evolution of the horseshoe crab oh wait it never evolved just like everything else
@@joshbrz8902 it wrongggg watch Pokemon
Earth: does its tilt
Some whales in Chile: ight imma die now
*chile
Whales: *My time has come*
Chile
@@lucasmalocasado7701 it's chile, but it's spelled c h i l l
Just kidding
I'm sorry, you said Aquatic Sloth? Why am I just now hearing about this?
they have an entire episode about sloths! including aquatic ones haha
Like the other reply says, they have another video talking about sloths where they mention aquatic sloths. If you interested, I would really recommend searching it up and watching it!
Yep Sloths has some very active ancestors: some climbed mountains, som were marine animals, and others were behemoths. and all we're left with are the small lazy tree bois. Though some tropical sloths have been known to swim from island to island...
@@GarryDKing I heard the modern sloths are in fact the most primitive
@@GarryDKing Actually they were so diverse because they were not very active. Low metabolism has its advantages.
Steve my guy supporting Eons for months now. Good job and thank you dude.
This is so well sequenced, presented and delivered. Thank you. Loved it :)
Walrus Whale seems uniquely interesting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odobenocetops
@@Oosh21 Thanks for the link, I too was intrigued and immediately wondered if they were related to narwhals. I had never heard of Odobenocetops before. Always something new to learn!
Finally my searching is over I found it ty for the link
odobenocetops feature on ‘walking with dinosaurs: sea monsters’ if you’d like to watch
This guy is my favourite PBS Eons presenter.
CSI: Miocene Andes
Very interesting episode! Never heard about this specific case before, but I am very aware of toxic algal blooms and its amazing to learn about a potential one from ancient times.
Also suggestions for future episodes:
-Update on Spinosaurus' tail
-Evolution of Seals
-Evolution of Eyes
-Evolution of Teeth
-Evolution of Venom (probably snake venom, but do what you can with that)
-Evolution of Proboscideans
-Evolution of Sirenians
This channel is so *utterly fascinating!* Thanks for the great work you all do.
I love when you recommend related videos you've done in the past and I've already seen them, makes me feel like I've been here awhile! I would love to see more videos on plant evolution, especially stuff like grass and different grains and such, things abundant and often completely overlooked when talking generally about evolution/history.
I just want to say I'm so happy this channel exist
Awesome Chopin remix in the background! To whoever put that in, thank you it is appreciated.
This channel has some of the best presenters and presentations Ive ever seen.
The whales obviously didn't appreciate the irony of their situation.
I´m chilean and it really makes me happy that other people are talking about how interesting our country is, even though since they are kind of new discoveries, they aren't being taught in schools. And by the way, as much as I want to say that he didn't pronounce any of those names correctly, but close, people don't have to be able to speak every language with perfect pronunciation, as long as they keep the names in their original language and just try to say them correctly is totally fine, so to everyone that speaks spanish, we have to give these people credit for doing their best.
I dont know if someone said this yet, but who the hell is disliking these videos? Are they just hateful people? These are some of the most informative and wholesome videos on youtube.
I love how you guys recognized the horrible puns and actually leaned into the whole thing, banners high :D splendid episode
Evolution of pinnipeds would be interesting to know about.
jjhuerta100 yeah I know 👀
Evolution of platypus could be intresting
I'm pretty sure they just did an episode of platypus
Or an episode on earliest placentals or pseudo-placentals too.
@@spritemon98 they told about the size
Seeing that a new eons video is out lifted my spirit. Thank you
This channel helps my knowledge _bloom_ .
It helps my algae *bloom*
Lol
This is one of my favorite eons episodes! Thank you!
Why would Andy do that?
It was the other Andys' fault. Bad influences.
His father was killed by a whale
@@spyrofrost9158 i loved him like a brother..
Some say it's because he has a heart of stone.
It's one of the best things about this particular channel, learning about ancient animal species that DIDN'T go extinct due to human activity 😊
This is the first time that I've seen someone talk about this area where several different species of Marine Mammals ended up dying and becoming fossils and bones over time.
I have two kids and babysit two more, they enjoy this channel. Thanks for the paleontology channel!
I hate people who say paleontology is boring, uneventful, and not important because we weren’t there. Earth’s history didn’t get interesting the moment people started appearing, it’s always been interesting
When I first subscribed, I remember thinking that the only was Eons could get better was if they a) made full-length and very in-depth documentaries for me to binge, or b) using puns. Looks like my thought became reality and now I love Eons even more than I thought was possible :)
This is why we need to learn palaeotology. One of the best episode.
I love a man that talks science to me
The titles always sound like clickbait but it’s always actually true! Love this
love the spooky Chopin in the background
I was searching the comments for someone who noticed lol
@@gsm5104 you found me!
@@gsm5104 makes you wonder how or who picks the music. "you know what would make this video really work? Chopin e minor prelude!" lol
@@felixp7 For sure lol. I hope they use Ravel’s Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte in a future video lol.
Absolutely love these videos. Been bingeing since i discovered the channel. Absolute gem.
I haven’t been this early since the Cambrian Explosion
Great video. I love Eons and PBS.
thank you pbs eons for dropping this bounty upon me
THIS CHANNEL IS AMAZING! Idk how many times I said that, but yeah, it's amazing~
Nobody:
Not a single soul:
My brain:
_Whales: no no you don’t understand!_
_Mountains: I wont hesitate bish_ *bang bang*
this is funny. why did I think this is funny?
My brother lives in Rhode Island (USA) and is a commercial quahog harvester. He does it by diving to the bottom and digging them up. However, every 5 to 10 years there is a huge algal bloom that permeates the water of Narragansett Bay where he lives. The clams take up the toxins as they filter the water and it collects in their tissues making them poisonous to eat so all shellfish fishing is prohibited until the bloom has dissipated and the clams have had time to clean themselves. This takes from 2 weeks to as long as 2 months depending on the severity of the invasion so I can understand how larger animals can succumb to the same effects.
Love your channel! You make great content! I have a few ideas for you:
1. When did we first use boats?
2. How did countries come to be?
3. When and how did we first fight with each other?
4. When did we first learn to write?
5. What was the first language?
This channel came up "recommended" and after watching a few episodes I have subscribed.
Informative. I like it. Keep up the good work
Mountains *kills whales*
Eons host “mountains of thanks!”
This video is a lie. Blake's just trying to throw the whale cops off his trail.
As a grad student of Environmental Geology & Contamination I love this video! What an amazing piecing together of the puzzle. I love it!
i feel like the southern continents are underrated in paleontology
Not really, Argentina is a hotbed of paleontology. Australia is too, and Antarctica is beginning to be.
Why was this so exciting to watch, I literally saw this in my recommended and didn’t expect to watch longer than a minute
I think Eons should do a show on the benefits of exercise on the physique.
Thank you for continuing to make these videos during the pandemic! I really appreciate them, keeping us educated and entertained :)
I have experience with a very similar process on a smaller scale. During high rainfall years, our local creek pumps artificially nutrient rich sediment (golf course fertilizer) into its terminus at the lake. During the bone dry summers that have become more prolonged due to climate change, the water quickly heats up & toxic blue-Green algae blooms, turning the lake a noxious green and causing rashes for swimmers & death for certain amphibians, mammals, and a threatened strain of lake resident Coastal Rainbow Trout. I wonder if a similar pattern will be observed in our lake 10,000 years from now by future researchers? Further, I'd be curious to learn if there is anyway to mitigate the isssue in the shorterm.
@@johnrogan9420 Or maybe avoid using it next to the creek, or put some barrier. There could be a lot of solutions
@Steven Zhou I don't particularly like golf, but why are you so against it?
Many states and municipalities don't care about such issues unless it's costing them $, but report the golf course to multiple agencies etc. Document what you see, safely take samples.
@@limiv5272 look at the environmental repercussions that arise with the "modern" golf courses. Toxic water created by mans short sighted behavior.
have the golf course use less harmful fertilizer, or fertilizer that dissipates faster, or even better use the local ecosystem to fertilize the golf course instead.
THIS WAS SO INFORMATIVE, THANK YOU!
Where do you get your soundtrack? Because that synthy Chopin at ~1:30 really intrigued me.
Which Nocturne is it ? I already eared a synth version, I think it was in a space opera movie/series.
@@PainterVierax not nocturne, prelude in E minor (the famous one)
What I love about these videos is that they present theories but they don’t claim to know all the answers just a bunch of answers
You had once planned to do a video on how the placenta evolved. Has this been done? Another interesting question is how some temnospondyls lived away from water and whether that led to the first egg-laying reptiles and how all that happened. I would also be interested in an account of the evolution of endothermy in vertebrates and what pressures drove it. But if you have other priorities, go ahead with those. You seem to have a knack in solving mysteries as well as making paleontology seem like so much fun.
Really well done video, as always.
I love you people.
I'm a simple man I see Pbs eon upload I click
My favourite chopin piece in the background, thank you!!!!!!!!
Crazy we live in a world where something as innocuous as Algae can kill some of the biggest animals on the planet. Life’s weird.
Huh haven't you heard about the tiniest bat virus challenging the homo sapiens right now
Causeway algal blooms are pretty common. They happen in a lot of water bodies close to farms or places where you find a lot of sewage.
I so love this channel, its such a wonderful resource!!!
So basically... a butterfly flapped its wings and animals on the other side of the ocean died as a result.
It’s amazing how interconnected everything is
*Mtns acting incognito...
"Did you kill these whales?"
*Mtns remain silent while concealing a large knife behind their backs.
I can never thank you enough to all the people and hours of work done to think through the hypotheses blows my mind.
This time it's the whales that think "oh no, not again". At least now we know why.
Thumbs up for Douglas Adams reference.
@@bobjohnbowles Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?
Just think how confused they'd have been if there were fossilized bowls of petunias also.
Humans: Whales are going extinct! We need to do everything in our power to save these majestic, beautiful creatures!
The whales: 1:25
Could you please make a video on the Natodomeri lion or other extinct African mega fauna.
Algea: produces 75% of earth's oxygen
Human's: Algea is toxic
Algea: *produces sad algea noises*
I'm sorry to use this word now, "Pandemic" .
Heart for that.
Never expected this video to relate to astronomy. I love watching how the Milankovitch cycles affected life on Earth.
Who is Steve?, omg! Show him already!!!
He's just as elusive as S.R. Foxley...
Do you Minecraft?
Isn't he the one of Scyshow?
@@baranorak4080 hahaha
@@akumaking1 Yeah sure! Right! the steve from minecraft hahahaha. it is a possibility...
Love this video bc it's a perfect example of how every little thing on this planet is interconnected
Lol oops commented before you said the exact same thing literally 10 seconds later 🤣
1:23 Chopin prelude in e minor gang where you at
Christian Moss Thank you for naming it! It sounded so familiar but I couldn’t find it myself
I appreciate the Chopin prelude :)
Wow, even geology can be a killer to living organisms.
Id love to see you guys do a video either the possibility of Carnivorous ceratopsians or a profile on Yutyrannus! I love your videos so much, you guys are by far my favorite prehistoric channel! Keep up the amazing work!
Loled with the "a pandemic" part XD
I just want to highlight a point.
While the angle of earth's axis of rotation does change over time in a cycle, this cycle has nothing to do with precession cycle, these are two different cycles.
I just wanted to highlight this, because I felt like the distinction wasn't made clear after hearing this 6:44.
CSI: EONS