Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503170010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
A father and son walking along a James River beach found 4-million-year-old whale bones and coral that lived at least 400 million years ago in an ocean in the Shenandoah Valley.
Alan B. Flanders of Newport News and his 6-year-old son, Nicholas, were enjoying Sunday's warm, springlike weather on the beach near a site being landscaped.
``We saw something that looked like petrified wood, but closer examination told us it was bone,'' Flanders said. ``Then we spotted the colored stone. I knew it was some kind of coral, but had no idea how old it was.''
Scientists at the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News examined the Flanders' finds and established their age. They plan to go to the beach to see if they can find more.
``It is very common to find fragments of ancient whales in the Hampton Roads area, but the coral find is much more exciting because of its age and origin,'' said Pete Money, a paleontologist who heads the museum's education department.
``The coral is pretty interesting stuff because it came from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia,'' he said. ``Four hundred million years ago, there was an ocean in that part of the state, and the coral grew there. It is quite rare to find it 300 miles away and in such good shape.''
He believes the coral was ``rafted'' downriver in tree roots or was brought in a chunk of ice during the Ice Age.
The Flanders' other finds included several pieces of a baleen whale that lived 4 million years ago, including a jawbone, a vertebra and an inner-ear bone.
``Not many kids can say they held a whale's ear in their hands,'' Nicholas Flanders said.
His father will donate the artifacts to the Virginia Living Museum.
``I hope that this will encourage others in the area to not throw old rocks and stones away until they take a close look at them,'' Flanders said. ``They may be throwing away a piece of history.''
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.