Researchers uncover unusual ancient fossil in the Amazon [Video]

Picture a dolphin. Now imagine one that’s twice the size of a person.Around 16 million years ago, a dolphin giant cruised the depths of its watery domain. But unlike most modern dolphins, its home wasn’t an ocean; it lived in a freshwater lake in the Peruvian Amazon. And though there are Amazonian freshwater dolphin species alive today, they aren’t close kin to that ancient cetacean. Its closest living relatives are river dolphins living more than 6,000 miles away in South Asia, according to researchers who recently described the previously unknown extinct mammal.Analysis of the newly identified ancient dolphin’s skull told paleontologists that its body would have measured at least 11 feet long — making it about 20% to 25% bigger than modern river dolphins and the biggest known freshwater dolphin.But the skull, which measured about 27 inches long, was incomplete, so the ancient dolphin may have been even larger than …