Bones found on Mid-County beach may be rare, extinct whale

Fossilized bones that some experts think could be the remains of an extinct whale dating back some 5 million years -- when shallow ocean covered the county and walruses and long-snouted dolphins plied the local waters -- have been found along a Mid-County beach.County construction crews spotted a set of vertebrae protruding from the ground last month; scientists have since identified the remains as whale bones. A planned excavation of the site, (the exact location of which the Sentinel is withholding at the request of paleontologists, to protect the discovery), is expected to reveal more about the animal."It might be something really exciting and new to science or it might be something that's not new to science but still important," said Frank Perry, paleontologist at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.Based on the few bones that are exposed, the whale is thought to be between 15 and 20 feet long. The rock the animal sits in comes from the end of the Miocene Epoch, which helps pinpoint its age to at least 5 million years, experts say.At that time, according to scientists, the ocean was not what it is today. Seawater spilled over much of California and contained a whole different mix of marine life. The dozens of species of whales then are just distant relatives of what exist today.Paleontologists who have visited the Santa Cruz fossil say it's too early to know whether the animal was an ancient baleen whale, along the lines of today's plankton-feeding humpbacks, or a meat-eating toothed whale, more closely related to the modern orca."If we get the skull, that will help us pin down a lot of details," said David Haasl, a paleontologist with Auburn-based PaleoResource Consultants, which has been contracted with the county to excavate the animal.The question paleontologists are burning to answer is just how much of the skeleton still sits beneath the surface. While fragments of whale bones are common on Santa Cruz County shores, which hold many shells and other remnants from the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, paleontologists have reason to believe the recently discovered whale fossil may be intact."When you go to a museum and see a full dinosaur skeleton, you have the impression that paleontologists always come across full skeletons, but that's not so," Perry said. "There's just a small part exposed here in Santa Cruz, but it looks very promising that we'll find more."The paleontology community has come across some historic gems in Central California before. The remains of a relative of the beluga whale, now only known to Arctic waters, was discovered inland. A small and little-known species of baleen whale was uncovered on Año Nuevo Island.A date to excavate the recently discovered whale has yet to be set, but county officials say they hope to do it as soon as possible.