In a new study, scientists detailed remarkable findings of a graveyard of whales that apparently died of toxic algae whose remains were preserved in Chile's Atacama Desert.

According to BBC News, the evidence says the whales would have died from ingesting toxic algae before being washed into an estuary and onto the sand, where they became buried over time. The buried mammals were found along the Pan-American Highway in northern Chile.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B.

It was already well known that the Atacama Desert was a burial site for whale fossils and the scientists were given a two-week window to dig before construction began on the highway. U.S. and Chilean researchers are making as many 3-D models as possible before moving the bones to a lab for further analysis.

"We found extinct creatures such as walrus whales - dolphins that evolved a walrus-like face. And then there were these bizarre aquatic sloths," Nicholas Pyenson, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, told BBC News. "To me, it's amazing that in 240m of road-cut, we managed to sample all the superstars of the fossil marine-mammal world in South America in the Late Miocene. Just an incredibly dense accumulation of species."

All the skeletons seemed to be mostly complete and were preserved in a similar manner. Since all the skeletons were facing the same direction and were upside down, suggesting they all died from the same sudden event.

"There are a few compelling modern examples that provide excellent analogs for the patterns we observed at Cerro Ballena-in particular, one case from the late 1980s when more than a dozen humpback whales washed ashore near Cape Cod, with no signs of trauma, but sickened by mackerel loaded with toxins from red tides," Pyenson said in a press release. "Harmful algal blooms in the modern world can strike a variety of marine mammals and large predatory fish. The key for us was its repetitive nature at Cerro Ballena: no other plausible explanation in the modern world would be recurring, except for toxic algae, which can recur if the conditions are right."

Pyenson brought 3-D imaging experts to the dig site so they could scan the entire area due to the time crunch of the Pan-American Highway construction. However, the Cerro Ballena is still believed to have much more marine mammal fossils to offer.

"Cerro Ballena is the densest site for individual fossil whales and other extinct marine mammals in entire world, putting it on par with the La Brea Tar Pits or Dinosaur National Monument in the U.S.," Pyenson said in the release. "The site preserves marine predators that are familiar to modern eyes, like large whales and seals. However, it also preserves extinct and bizarre marine mammals, including walrus-like whales and aquatic sloths. In this way, the site is an amazing and rare snapshot of ancient marine ecosystems along the coast of South America."