New Zealander rescues 150kg eight-million-year-old whale skull from beach
- 4 years ago
This New Zealander managed to stumble across an eight-million-year-old whale skull while hunting for fossils on a beach.
Morne, Mamlambo on YouTube, had found the fossilised bone the previous day and got in touch with a local museum who identified the skull as one of a baleen whale from the Miocene era.
"They came back and said it was the skull of a baleen whale from the Miocene era, about 8-million-years old, and it would be good if I can retrieve it before the large tidal surges destroy it or cover it back up again," Morne told Newsflare.
The footage shows the amateur palaeontologist's struggling to move the 150kg fossil from the beach, up a flight of stairs and into his car.
Morne added: "I set off early the next morning in and used my home-made wagon to pull it back up a massive set of stairs, the only way to access the beach and finally got it into the backseat of my car.
"Some of the stairs were too steep so I had to build mini ramps to get it up there. I tried to weigh it on my scale, but it only goes up to 140kg and it maxed it out.
"As I was almost back at my car, the wagon broke and cut my leg, so I had to drag it the rest of the way to the car. I started at 6 a.m. and only got it into the car at 12:30 p.m. - 6.5 hours of effort! I'm waiting for the museum to now study it further.
"I'm still waiting for the museum to take a look at it, they might want
me to prep it (remove the excess rock) so they can better identify the
species."
Morne, Mamlambo on YouTube, had found the fossilised bone the previous day and got in touch with a local museum who identified the skull as one of a baleen whale from the Miocene era.
"They came back and said it was the skull of a baleen whale from the Miocene era, about 8-million-years old, and it would be good if I can retrieve it before the large tidal surges destroy it or cover it back up again," Morne told Newsflare.
The footage shows the amateur palaeontologist's struggling to move the 150kg fossil from the beach, up a flight of stairs and into his car.
Morne added: "I set off early the next morning in and used my home-made wagon to pull it back up a massive set of stairs, the only way to access the beach and finally got it into the backseat of my car.
"Some of the stairs were too steep so I had to build mini ramps to get it up there. I tried to weigh it on my scale, but it only goes up to 140kg and it maxed it out.
"As I was almost back at my car, the wagon broke and cut my leg, so I had to drag it the rest of the way to the car. I started at 6 a.m. and only got it into the car at 12:30 p.m. - 6.5 hours of effort! I'm waiting for the museum to now study it further.
"I'm still waiting for the museum to take a look at it, they might want
me to prep it (remove the excess rock) so they can better identify the
species."