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A whale cranium fossil estimated to be some 12 million years outdated has been discovered on a seaside within the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, in keeping with an area museum.
The invention was made in October by a Pennsylvania man, Cody Goddard, who was looking for fossils and shark’s enamel, the Calvert Marine Museum mentioned in an announcement.
“It felt like we had received the World Cup of Paleontology!” mentioned Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology on the museum within the japanese US state.
“We do not but know what species of Miocene baleen whale that is,” he mentioned. “That we are going to solely know as soon as it has been ready.”
The museum mentioned that it took two months to extract and transfer the cranium, which was encased in a hardened block of sediment and weighs round 650 kilos (295 kilograms).
It’s the most full fossil whale cranium ever recovered within the Calvert Cliffs space, in keeping with the museum, and has been christened “Cody” for its finder.
Godfrey mentioned the cranium has been moved to the museum’s Fossil Preparation Lab and specialised instruments will likely be used to take away the sediment that encases most of it, a course of that may take many months.
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