Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-11
science PUZZLED
BY FOSSIL WHALE
Dug Up Thirty Miles from
Ocean and Lived 100000
Years Ago.

n new AOSSi WAAc1ANg a Sli ehGNl "
scientists, has just arrived at the Yale
Peabody Museum in New Haven.
from California. He is supposed to
he member of the dolphin family.
and because of his resemblance has
already been christened by Professor
Richard s. Bull Yale's vertebrate
paleontologist, De1phinavuS newhalli.
More than 100000 years ago, how
much over no one seems able to say,
the whale is supposed to have swum
around San Luis Obispo County, fol
he was found preserved in a slab of
sandstone on the Suey ranch in that
county in what is called sulphur
Creek canyon.
The ranch, owned by the Newhall
Land and Farming Company is about
700 feet above sea level and thirty
miles from the ocean.
Takes Name of "Newhall."
The new member of the Yale collec-
ton has taken a part of his name
from the family of Newhall, who pre-
scented him to Peabody. This family
once before was contributor to Yale
collections, first through the late
Henry G. Newhall, of the class of 1874
Sheffield Scientific School, who accom-
panied Professor o. II. Marsh upon
the Yale expedition of 1873. and tbs
me through his nephew, Edwin
" my ANNN lieiiif u "a tiiN Nihooti-
chusetts Agricultural College, 1906, the
d-scoverer and giver of the new speci-
men.
Professor Lull, in the American
Journal of Science, says about the
whale
There has recently been presented
| TO the Peabody Museum at Yale Uni
versity a slab of sandstone contain
| ing the impression of a small fossil
whale, apparently one of the Dolphin
| .dae, but otherwise new to science
In view of the scarcity of cetacean
remains from the tertiary rocks of
the Pacific coast, and of the perfec-
ton of the relic, the specimen is
eminently worthy of consideration.
Probably of Miocene Age.
THE fossil is presumed to be of
Miocene age, Judging from the geo.
logic map of North America pub
lished In 1911. The precise level, how
ever, has not been determined, but
is under investigation
THE specimen consists of a single
slab of sandstone, upon the surface
of which the articuated skeleton OF
the dolphin was impressed Most of
the bones have eroded so that their
imprints alone remain, with little of
the osseous material c.inging to their
depths. OF the skull a great deal
was preserved, for, while the exposed
surface had suffered from weather
ing, removal of the matriX from the
reverse side displayed most of the
right aspect of the Uranium and jaws
There remain of the animal, there
fore, tne entire SKULL and jaws with
some entire teeth, some having only
the root imbedded in the alveolus,
and others represented only by the
| imprint in the matrix. The vertebral
column is indicated as far as the
twelfth dorsal There are twelve
pairs of ribs and the impression of
the sternum is distinct.
OF the limbs, the left scapula, the
humerus and the ulna are represented,
and at least four phalanges of the
second or third digit, while of the
right paddle. impressions of all the
! elements remain except the distal
ends of the several diglts. There is
unfortunately no trace Of lumbar or
caudal vertebrae, nor have I recog
nized any portion of the pelvis, which
won. d be of great interest in so old a
form. l should judge the animal to
be fully adult despite it's rather small
re. as the bones show scarcely a
trace of the epiphyses. ~
Specimen Clearly a Dolphin.
THE entire specimen IS. In a sense
comparable to the deeply incised but
partly effaced Inscriptions on an
Egyptian obelisk, and the interpreta-
ton of such an ancient eroglyph
Is necessarily hating.
For the purpose of comparison
have though the courtesy of Dr.
George F. Eaton used a mounted
skeleton of Delphinus delphis Pea
body Museum osteolog' can collection.
This speclment IS not quite mature.
Who Skeleton meaeures 8 feet 10 inches
from tip of rostrum to that of the
caudal series. The FOSSIL which. as
| have ga d, seems to have been fully
grown, would have an estimated
length of perhaps 8 feet. though the
proportions of the various regions
which serve to make up the total
length differ In the two forms.
1.-The specimen is clearly dolphin
allied to Delph'nus and hence Of the
family Delph'nidae. 1t compares
F'"o~ab'v with the dolphins of this
genus In point of size, proportion OF
trum to Uranium, In dental
forrula, character Of the dentitiou.
in having approximately the sa me-
IN hor of double headed ribs, and in
the general character Of the pectoral
limb more especially offhe manus.
THE contrasts are in practically
every instance due to the more PRINT
tive character OF the FOSSIL. and l
fail to recognize one which would de-
bar the more ancient from a direct
ancestry to Delph'nus delph's itself.
To sum UP these contrasts. they are:
I'm the skull, the straighter more
nearly vertical occiput. the minor
proportions of the individual cranial
elements. the more robust zygomatic
arch, the less expanded mixi larry
plate and the more broadly expanded
and powerful rear portion of the
lower jaw. The cervical vertebrate, in
so far as may be learned, differ
mainly in the lack OF frsion of atlas
and axis in the fossil and the some
what greater collective length of the
entire series.
1.-THE dorsa's are much longer in
centrum and lower In the height Of
the neural spine, while the number
of doub headed ribs In the two