Featured Image Credit: Jan Vangets
By Sarah Sharkey
A whale skull was found on Flagler Beach, FL earlier this month. The massive skull is so large that it took a team of multiple people and a stretcher just to move it out of the waves.
George Biedenbach, director of the conservation field station operated by the Georgia Aquarium in the nearby town of Marineland, Florida had this to say about the interesting find, “This, we are certain is a baleen whale.”
It is very rare for these skulls to be found because of the weight. “Normally these skulls actually sink. For this to have washed up on shore, it’s pretty unique in that regard.”
At eight feet long and 400 pounds the skull took up the entire truck bed. For now, it the exact species is undetermined, but Biedenbach confirmed that it was the upper jaw of the whale. Jim Hain, the senior scientist at the Marineland Right Whale Project ventured a guess that it may be from a humpback or fin whale and that the skull likely came from a juvenile animal.
Biedenbach was able to say, “We’re pretty certain this is not a right whale which is a good thing because right whales are critically endangered.”
Eventually you may be able to see this skull on display at a museum one day, after it has been examined by researchers.
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