An 8.8-million-year-old tooth proves capybaras once splashed in the Atacama desert

Geologist Carolina Gutstein of Chile's Universidad Santo Tomas pulled a fragment of capybara molar from 8.8-million-year-old rock at El Morro — the oldest capybara fossil ever found in the country. Modern capybaras live only in wetlands east of the Andes and are completely absent from Chile, yet the fossil soils and plant remains around the tooth show the coast was once humid, lined with palms and flowing water. Published in Scientific Reports, the find proves the driest desert on Earth was not always dry.