34-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull Found by High School Student in Family Timber Farm in Alabama

A high school student and her teacher in Alabama were able to come across a whale's fossil remains that date back to 34 million years ago.

High School Students Finds Whale Fossils in Family Timber Farm

16-year-old Lindsey Stallworth, together with her teacher and evolutionary biologist Andrew Gentry, were conducting a dig in Stallworth's family timber farm in Monroe County. This was done as part of a summer project they had in school.

Interestingly, before this whale fossil discovery, Stallworth also spotted shark teeth fossils in the area.

The duo spent a few hours digging and searching until they spotted giant bones that were protruding out of a hill. Gentry explained that they did not exactly know their findings, aside from the fact that it belonged to a huge vertebrae.

They spend a week clearing the findings from excess rock using small chisels and dental picks. Doing so enabled them to expose the big creature's huge tooth from its lower jaw.

34-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull Unearthed

Gentry then reportedly sent snaps of the finding to his paleontological colleague and friend, Dr. James Parham from the University of California. Dr. Parham then forwarded the photos to Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe from Los Angeles' Natural History Museum.

Dr. Velez-Juarbe is a fossil marine mammal specialist. He was able to identify that the finding corresponded to a whale carnivore. The dig site's geology has also been dated before, which meant that the fossil's age could be determined immediately.

The whale is thought to be a carnivore that was from the Eocene epoch that took place around 33.9 million to 56 million years ago. During this time, the state was underwater and sea levels were remarkably higher.

The exact species of the whale remains a mystery. Back in the Eocene epoch, Alabama hosted primitive whales, such as the ferocious Basilosaurus cetoides that had a length of up to 60 feet. This newly found specimen could belong to an unknown species of the said whale family. While Gentry expresses reasonable certainty that the whale is a primitive one from the said family, he adds that it will take longer to exactly determine the whale's species.

Gentry explains that they were only able to excavate the whale's skull, adding that the majority of their excavation is still kept inside stone. He adds, however, that they were able to find remarkable postcranial elements during the skull's excavations. These findings show that more of the whale's skeleton could be present.

The whale skull has been brought to the Alabama School of Math and Science for further clearing and studying. The duo also plans to continue their excavations in the coming year.

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