Twelve-million-year-old whale skull discovered in Maryland
By The Brussels Times with Belga
A whale skull some 12 million years old has been discovered on a beach on Chesapeake Bay in the US state of Maryland, the Calvert Marine Museum, a local institution, announced on Thursday.
The skull was found in October by a man named Cody Goddard, who was looking for shark teeth and other fossils. Goddard then contacted Stephen Godfrey, curator of palaeontology at the marine museum, who worked with him to examine the fossil, according to the New York Post.
"We felt like we won the palaeontology world cup," said Godfrey. "We don't yet know what species it's about. That will only become clear once the fossil is ready to be examined."
The skull, which weighs over 295 grammes, was encased in a large, hardened block of sediment laying on the beach. It took two months to loosen and move it, according to Godfrey.
Calvert Marine Museum said on Facebook that the fossil was estimated to be 12 million years old.