Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 7, 1993 TAG: 9309070066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TAPPAHANNOCK LENGTH: Medium
Gerald Johnson, who began the dig Friday, didn't mind the sand that stuck to his face and under his wristwatch - it could be sand from prehistoric Miocene deposits.
"This isn't like `Jurassic Park,' " Johnson said while clinging to the side of a raw yellow bluff, referring to this summer's blockbuster movie about dinosaurs.
Tappahannock resident Jake Derby discovered the fossils sticking from the cliff face last winter and tracked Johnson down in Williamsburg.
Parts of the whale are slowly emerging, including several fossil vertebrae and what appears to be the humerus that attached to the creature's giant flippers.
"I hope we find its ear bone," Johnson said. "They're diagnostic."
With an ear bone, scientists can identify the whale's genus and species and fit it in among the dozen or so types of whales that cruised the prehistoric ocean that covered all of the coastal plain.
Based on the size of the bones, Johnson estimated the whale's length at 20 feet.
Prehistoric whale bones and fossilized shark teeth are a basic feature along Chesapeake Bay, where coastal-plain sediments laid down millions of years ago are exposed by wind and wave.
Whales and similar animals roamed the shallow sea edge that periodically lapped the shore as far west as Fredericksburg and Washington as the sea level rose and fell.
Each sea change left behind its own layer of sediment and fossils and carved shelves and benches into the sediments of the previous epoch, Johnson said.
The shallow, near-shore water was enriched by nutrients that attracted fish and nourished shellfish beds. Whales may have used the region as a calving ground.
by CNB