A fossil-rich desert comes under threat

The Ocucaje Desert in Peru. The area is quickly being carved into plots of land for real estate projects, squatter settlements and chicken farms. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

MILLIONS of years ago, a desert in Peru was a gathering place for fantastical sea creatures: whales that walked, dolphins with walrus faces, sharks with teeth as large as a human face, red-feathered penguins, aquatic sloths.

They reproduced in the gentle waters of a shallow lagoon buffered by hills that still wrap across the landscape today. Eventually, tectonic shifts lifted the land from the sea. More than 10,000 years ago, people arrived. With them came art, religion and monumental architecture.