A closer look at “9-Million-Year-Old Capybara Tooth Found in Atacama Desert Suggests Region Was Once Lush”, exactly as the source publishes it. A fossilized tooth from a capybara, a semi-aquatic rodent that thrives in wet environments, has been discovered in Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. The 9-million-year-old specimen, described as a 'freakish' find by researchers, challenges assumptions about the region's ancient climate. Capybaras are native to South America's wetlands and river systems, so their presence in what is now a hyper-arid landscape indicates that the Atacama may have once featured abundant water sources.
The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that the desert was not always barren, but rather hosted a diverse ecosystem during the Miocene epoch. Paleontologists say the tooth's excellent preservation allowed them to identify it as belonging to a now-extinct species of capybara, possibly related to modern forms. For the complete material, the listing points back to the source inside the network.