(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists became real lucky when they found fossils of a whale in the forest, which is 85 thousand years old. They found it in the middle of the forest in the Hengchun district in southern Taiwan.
At first, the team noticed 4 ribs, they were sticking out of the ground, and when they decided to conduct excavations in this place, they came across other bones.
Archeology students from the National Cheng Kung University, led by Professor Cheng Kung and geologist Yang Jirui, went on an excavation, which is a mandatory part of their studies. They are held often, and the main thing is to teach students how to use tools correctly.
This time the hike was really successful. First, the group came across 4 ribs sticking out of the ground. After studying the area, the team decided to continue the excavation. So an ordinary campaign turned into a huge work front that dragged on for 90 days.
For three whole months, they worked here day and night, without resting their hands. The find exceeded all expectations.
The team discovered just a gigantic fossil of a whale, which is 85,000 years old. The length of the petrified ancient animal is 15.3 m. It turned out that about 70% of the remains were perfectly preserved in the ground.
Students excavated the spine, shoulder blades and back of the skull of an ancient whale. It was also possible to unearth a jaw bone. By the way, the jaw turned out to be the heaviest part, it weighed more than 330 kg, and was almost 2 meters long.
Each excavated fragment was carefully transferred to a stretcher so that the remains could be transported from the forest. For example, 12 people carried the jaw to a flat area for 7 hours.
Scientists suggest that once a long time ago it was a blue whale or a large fin whale. This is the first such find in Taiwan. Now the National Museum of Natural Sciences plans to reconstruct the skeleton and display it as a valuable exhibit.
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