|  A team led by Fernando Muñiz Guinea has found a four million year old fossilised craneal bone belonging to a species of whale that became extinct two million years ago, on a site in Lepe. Mr Muñiz explained yesterday that the bone's authenticity has been confirmed by the paleontologist and specialist in Tertiary period cetaceans, Raúl Esperante, from the Geoscience Research Institute in California.
The craneal bone belongs to a cetotherid, which is a small toothless whale closely related to today's blue whales. The fossil bone found at the Lepe site is around 50cm long and the whale is estimated to have measured between three and four metres.
Until now, the only whale bones previously discovered in the province of Huesca have been from the Balaenopteriidae family which did not appear until around 15 million years after the cetotheridae. They were found at various sites in Cabezo de la Joya, Huelva itself, and on the banks of the La Nicoba river between San Juan del Puerto and Trigueros. |
