A whale fossil was found in the upland mountain slope town of Scotts Valley in California this month, and archaeologists believe the bones could be almost 4 million years old. Judging the by the remains so far the team has pegged down the length of the whale to 25 feet.
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Scott Armstrong, a paleontologist with Paleo Solutions, which provides archaeological and paleontological consulting services, said that the fossil belongs to a mysticete whale, an ancestor of the baleen whale.
Archaeologists and paleontologists designated to the project were delighted to discover the fossil comparatively intact, with pieces of the shoulder blades, skull, jaw, arm bones, and vertebrae.
Matthew Clapham, paleontologist from University of California, also added that in his opinion the fossils found along the coastline, commonly has only fragments and not a wholly undisturbed structure from head to toe.
“Most locations the place you see a hill, someplace there is a fault line close by pushing it up”, he mentioned. “They’re comparatively inactive faults. But… But yeah, it’s from lifting thousands, maybe millions of years ago”, said paleontologist Scott Armstrong reportedly said according to Christian Science Monitor.
The excavation process began Thursday, as workers using hoes, shovels, brooms and smaller tools slowly unearthed the ancient artifact.
Scientists secured the fossil bones in plaster to safeguard the fossil’s integrity and make transport easier. They either live on their own or affiliate to large groups of whales, with whom they communicate through very long and complex sounds.
So, how did whale fossils end up in the mountains? Additionally, in 2009, whale bones were excavated from the bluffs of East Cliff. It’s truly a gem when accidents happen to uncover ancient remains.
Researchers said that some of the rocks near the site were very hard, which made it difficult to breaks them off around the bones without doing any damage to the bones themselves. Armstrong and his team estimate the whale could be 4 million years old.
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They had named these newly described filter-feeding baleen whale speciesWaharoa ruwhenua, Tokarahia kauaeroa and re-identified Tokarahia lophocephalus, a poorly known species discovered in the 1950s. “A lot of whales were starting to evolve from their early ancestral group so this specimen, depending on how complete it is, could say a lot of interesting things about the evolution of whales”.
