Near-Complete Ancient Skeleton Over 15 Meters Long Discovered in Forest May Belong to Blue Whale or Fin Whale.
In May 2022, while searching with local collector Zhang Yumu, Zhou Wenbo, a member of the whale fossil excavation team at the National Cheng Kung University Archaeology Institute, discovered four whale ribs protruding from the ground deep in the forest. After some digging, they contacted researcher Yang Zirui at the university, Newsweek reported on December 6.
The whale jawbone is longer than an adult person. (Photo: NCKU).
The nearly 70% complete fossil is estimated to belong to a large blue whale or fin whale that lived approximately 85,000 years ago. The shoulder blade, jawbone, the back of the skull, and tail vertebrae are all intact, according to a statement from National Cheng Kung University.
Whales evolved from land animals, diverging from a common ancestor with hippos around 50 million years ago. The blue whale, the largest animal ever to exist on Earth, can reach lengths of up to 30 meters, followed by the fin whale, which can grow to 26 meters. The oldest specimen of modern blue whale ever found is a skull fossil in southern Italy. Blue whales and fin whales are evolutionarily related, having developed into distinct species from a common ancestor approximately 3.5 million years ago.
The Tougou area in Háng Xuân is a fossil hotspot. Numerous fossils of shells, sharks, crabs, and whale bones have been discovered there. The fossilized whale specimen, over 15 meters long, was excavated over 90 days by Yang, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at National Cheng Kung University, along with researchers from the National Museum of Natural Science and a group of students from Chengdu University of Technology.
A total of eight people transported the skeleton using a wooden stretcher through the rugged and dense terrain of the forest. The fossil is currently stored at the National Museum of Natural Science. According to the university, the whale jawbone weighs 334 kg and measures 223 cm in length. Zhuang Jingren, a rescue volunteer, noted that he had never seen a jawbone longer than 98 cm.
This skeleton represents the second largest mammal fossil in Taiwan, following the rhinoceros fossil discovered in 1971. The skeleton, located in Tả Trấn, belonged to the hayasaka rhinoceros species that lived exclusively in Taiwan during the Khang Tân period from 11,700 years to 2.5 million years ago.
The team of experts at the museum will continue to clean the whale bone specimen. Scientists hope to further study the fossil to better understand how whales adapted to environmental changes from the Ice Age to the present.
