The most complete fossil petrified skeleton found in Viñales
HAVANA, Dec. 6 A petrified skeleton inside a cave in the Viñales Valley, Pinar del Río, found by chance, appears to be the most complete fossil remainsdiscovered in Cuba of a reptile belonging to the Mesozoic period.
Although the research is just beginning, “there is no doubt of the enormous value of the discovery of what was an ichthyosaur between three and four meters long, from the Lower Cretaceous period,” notes a report by journalist Ronald Suárez Rivas for Granma.
The discovery was made by René Dopico, who at 60 years old did not think that a figure impregnated in the rock could be considered by some specialists as the paleontological discovery of the century in Cuba, the report notes.
Dopico tells the journalist: “One day I sat on a rock and watched. “I told myself that it looked like an animal, and that’s where all this came from.” Previously, he had found ammonite fossils that he showed as a curiosity to tourists who came to his farm in the Viñales Valley, until one of those occasional visitors published the photos on the Internet, and the commotion began.
Photo: Ronald Suárez Rivas. The figure in the stones, of enormous value
The discovery was made by René Dopico, who at 60 years old did not think that a figure impregnated in the rock could be considered by some specialists as the paleontological discovery of the century in Cuba.
The doctor in Geological Sciences, Manuel Iturralde, affirms that there is a consensus that it is an ichthyosaur. The unknown would be determining the type, one of the points towards which the work focuses.
For Iturralde, the discovery “opens a door to search for other specimens in rocks of the same age, both in nearby areas and in other regions of the Sierra de los Órganos or Rosario.”
The next steps would be focused on returning to the place to carry out photogrammetry that allows extracting a 3D model of the fossil and taking rock samples from the slab where the reptile appeared, to be able to specify the age of the ichthyosaur and try to identify it. to which type it belonged, details Lázaro William Viñola, a doctoral student who leads the research.
Researcher Yasmani Ceballos, another member of the team, comments that, until now, incomplete skulls had been found in Cuba; some vertebrae (never more than five), and isolated bones of saurians from the Upper Jurassic period.
This discovery, on the other hand, has a part of the skull, the almost complete vertebral column, ribs, remains of other bones and fins. Hence he considers it “the most complete fossil remains of a reptile from the Cuban Mesozoic.”
Determine age
Based on the data collected, they estimate that it could belong to the Lower Cretaceous (between 130 and 145 million years), a fact that if confirmed would make the discovery even more valuable. “Towards the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous, most genera of ichthyosaurs practically disappeared from the fossil record.”
However, Ceballos warns that “it is not definitive. Much more research is needed to determine the age correctly.” The team in charge of the study has established contact with other Cuban and foreign specialists, who have expressed their willingness to collaborate.
Taking into account the enormous importance of the discovery and the need to preserve it, they also coordinated with the management of the Viñales National Park to restrict access to the place. Something is necessary, also, because it is a cave that is collapsing, and which floods suddenly when it rains.
Background
Ceballos acknowledges that there have been other surprising discoveries on the island. This is the case of a Jurassic dinosaur bone, found at the beginning of the 20th century, described in 1942 in Alfredo de la Torre’s degree thesis, or those of a prehistoric turtle, or the remains of a monkey, also found in a Pinar del Río cavern.
“But the fact that this fossil corresponds to the early Cretaceous period, and to the almost complete skeleton of a large marine reptile, gives it enormous relevance. Nothing like this had ever been found in Cuba,” considers the researcher.
Iturralde affirms that there is no doubt that it constitutes “an important find, a unique, different fossil, that tells a story that none of those that had been found could tell because it is very complete.”
Prehistoric reptiles, carnivores
Iturralde said that these prehistoric reptiles were very abundant. “They were distributed throughout the oceans and had a long life, from the Triassic (250 million years) to the Cretaceous (90 million).”
With a certain physical resemblance to the current dolphin, but with a longer beak and sharp teeth, Iturralde points out that they swam at high speed and could dive to great depths. Everything also indicates that they were carnivorous animals.
This even allows us to develop theories about how the ichthyosaur could have survived to the present day, transforming from a living animal into a petrified animal on the wall of the dark interior of a cave in Pinar del Río.
Viñales before Viñales
The Viñales Valley did not always have the appearance that today makes it an important destination for tourism, Granma points out. Millions of years ago, the area was underwater, so part of its rocks come from the bottom of what is known as “the early Caribbean.”
Photo: Kaloian Santos Cabrera.
Ricardo Romero, the main specialist of the National Geopark, located in the Sierra de los Órganos, explained to the journalist that what is seen today is the result of complex processes that have occurred over time.
Discovered by pure chance, as has happened so many times, the marine saurian fossil now adds to the values of Cuba’s first Geopark, enlarging the mystique of a region that has captivated poets, painters and scientists alike, the report notes.
