Researchers
diving off the coast of Georgia may have found the remains of an Atlantic gray
whale, a relic of a population that was hunted to extinction by the 18th
century.
But
this particular specimen died long before whalers became a threat. Carbon
dating showed that the fossil, a left jawbone, is about 36,000 years old.
The
big bone was first discovered along with two badly eroded vertebrae near Gray's
Reef National Marine Sanctuary about 20 miles (32 kilometers) off southeast
Georgia in 2008. It took the researchers two years to pull out all the pieces
of the fossil, which was embedded in layers of shell and sand 70 feet (21
meters) below the surface. The jawbone was recovered in sections and measures 5
feet (1.5 meters) in length.
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