Detective work

I'm frequently astonished at the amount of detail that paleontologists can glean from fossilized remains. Quite honestly, it's easy to understand why the uninitiated often view their conclusions with a degree of of skepticism.

That said, take a look at this. An Italian team of paleontologists have taken a close look at the fossilized remains of 4 million year old dolphin, and concluded that it was killed by a 12 foot long shark known as Cosmopolitodus hastalis, which attacked it from below, biting deep into its abdomen. The shark then shook its head violently, tearing out large chunks of flesh and causing great loss of blood. Then, when the dolphin rolled onto its back, the shark administered the coup de grace with another bite in the region of the dorsal fin.

Giovanni Bianucci, who led the study (and produced the illustration above), says the 8 foot long dolphin, of a species known as Astadelphis gastaldii, had lain in a museum in Torino, Italy for over a century before he began to work with it and noticed the distinctive bite marks.

CSI afficianados should take heed. You think a cold case is a challenge? Here's the actual work in Paleontolology.