Prehistoric whale skeleton found in Italy...

[j. d. worthington]

Prehistoric whale found in inland Italy - Yahoo! News

Title: "Prehistoric whale found in inland Italy", from AP, by Alessandra Rizzo, datelined Tue., Apr. 3, 2007.

ROME - Italian researchers have excavated the skeleton of a 4 million-year-old whale in the Tuscan countryside, a discovery that could help reconstruct the prehistoric environment of the sea that once covered the region, officials said Tuesday.

The 33-foot skeleton, dating to the Pliocene epoch, was found in almost perfect order, with only the jaw bones out of place, said paleontologists with the Museum of Natural History in Florence.

Nearly all of Italy was once under water, and it is not unusual to find cetacean fossils in Tuscany.

But the whale skeleton's discovery, about 6 miles east of the Mediterranean, was extraordinary because it was almost complete, and a wealth of organisms were found around it, officials said.

Fish and other sea organisms are believed to have lived off the whale's decomposing body for decades. Cioppi said researchers are cataloging the organisms for lab research.

Also found among the bones were some shark teeth, leading researchers to believe that the whale was attacked just before it died. Cioppi said it was too soon to tell if the shark killed the whale.

Excavations for the whale skeleton began in February after an amateur researcher came across the bones while digging for fossils last year and alerted the museum. The skeleton was found about 100 yards underground in Orciano Pisano, about 50 miles west of Florence, the museum said.

The warm waters that covered the Tuscan countryside started receding about 1.5 million years ago, said Alessandro Garassino, a professor with Milan's Museum of Natural History.

There's also a slide show with the story, for those interested....

[Talysia]

I love it when discoveries like this are made. It just goes to prove that history is all around us.

[The Ace]

Yes, not only a virtually complete skeleton, but traces of an ecosystem. This could provide volumes of information.

[HardScienceFan]

Take my word for it,the reconstruction of a fossil ecosystem is very hard to do.With a bit of luck,you figure out the bathymetry,and some inferences on water temperature and salinity can be made.The whale,by the way,is not goning to be a big help in this,funnily enough,but microfossil assemblages
will certainly help.

[HardScienceFan]

Originally Posted by Talysia

I love it when discoveries like this are made. It just goes to prove that history is all around us.

You don't know the half of it.I'm glad you said it though,most people would just say SO WHAT?'.