SYDNEY, (APP/AFP): A huge, five-million-year-old whale tooth has been discovered on an Australian beach, providing the first evidence of the now extinct killer sperm whale outside the Americas.
The 30-centimetre-long (12-inch) fossilised tooth, which is larger than that of a Tyrannosaurus rex, was found by a fossil enthusiast at Beaumaris Bay near Melbourne in February.
“After I found the tooth I just sat down and stared at it in disbelief,” Murray Orr said after the find was announced on Thursday by Museum Victoria, to whom he has donated the tooth.
“I knew this was an important find that needed to be shared with everyone.”
Museum Victoria said the unique fossil belonged to an extinct species of “killer sperm whale” which would have measured up to 18 metres (60 feet) in length and weighed some 40 tonnes.
It is the only example ever found outside the Americas, it added.
International News
Fossilised tooth of gigantic ‘killer’ whale found in Australia
