Fossil capybara tooth found in Chile indicates Atacama was once wet

Researchers discovered a nine million year old capybara tooth in the Atacama Desert, Live Science reported. The presence of the fossilized tooth from a semi-aquatic rodent in the hyperarid region supports the idea that the local environment was not always a desert. [1]

Capybaras are modern rodents that depend heavily on aquatic habitats and bodies of water. Finding fossil evidence of this species in the current desert landscape indicates that the region previously contained sufficient water to support semi-aquatic mammalian life. [1]

The Atacama Desert is a desert plateau on the Pacific coast of South America, stretching along a 1,600 kilometre strip of land in northern Chile, west of the Andes. It covers an area of 105,000 square kilometres, rising to 128,000 square kilometres if the lower slopes of the Andes are included. [3]

The discovery provides fossil evidence regarding the environmental history of the region. Researchers analyze such fossilized remains to reconstruct how past climates and ecosystems changed over millions of years. [1]