Old lady Panama adds a few years

You are as old as you feel, so the Panamanian Isthmus is not likely to lose sleep over the discovery that it is likely somewhat older than was previously thought.

In the June 11 edition  of  The New Scientist magazine two experts from the Smithsonian Tropical Research describe geological discoveries east of Panama City and in the excavations that are part of the canal widening project.

The finds have led  the authors Camilo Montes David Farris and Carlos Jaramillo to introduce a new theory on the age of the isthmus.

 The new findings contradict the popularly accepted theory, introduced in 1980, that the isthmus is 3.5 million years old.

The article outlines a theory that the tectonic plates of the Americas collided, and created the isthmus, up to 22 million years ago, 19 million years before the birth of the Arctic ice sheet.

So the old lady is older than we thought, but the excavations have produced  many other finds to excite researchers into the past.

 Among many other finds  paleontologists from the Smithsonian and the University of Florida collected more than 400 fossil shark teeth from giant sharks 60-70 feet in length. They were found in the Gatun Formation as part of ongoing work to reveal the origins of the narrow land-bridge that rose to connect North and South America