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CNN Live At Daybreak

Ancient Whale Fossil Discovered at Construction Site

Aired July 25, 2001 - 08:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Remains found at a construction site in California are making news this morning, and not just because they're millions of years old. Archaeologist think the whale -- they're whale bones -- and think that the whale died a violent death, and they think that they've actually identified the killer.

Details from Bridget Naso of CNN affiliate KUSI in San Diego, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIDGET NASO, KUSI REPORTER (voice-over): A remarkable discovery was made at this reservoir construction site on Mount Soledad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right by this stack of two-by-fours in this south wall...

NASO: Robert Lovell (ph), the archaeologist at the site, says as soon as he spotted the small fragment, he stopped work on that area of the project.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I first used a trawl to clear the sediment away and reveal more of it. As you clear it away, you brush more off and I realized that it wasn't just a small fragment, it was stuck back in the sediment pretty far.

NASO: What Lovell had uncovered were two to three million-year- old remains of a whale we never knew existed.

GEORGE KENNEDY, PALEONTOLOGIST: This is probably the bone that was first discovered.

NASO: Paleontologist George Kennedy described how they knew this whale was different.

KENNEDY: The ribs are thickened and much denser than is typically found on any other known whale. The combination of the lower -- the skull characters, the ear bone, for instance.

NASO: The identification of a new 60 to 70 foot whale from the family of whales that includes the humpback whale was just part of the excitement for scientists.

(on camera): While this fossil looks relatively small compared to the other bones that were found, it's really quite significant because the markings on it tell paleontologist what happened to this whale.

KENNEDY: This is sort of a unique combination. We have seen bones with cuts on them, but when we find the teeth in among the bones, we can strongly suggest that we had a carcass here that was being chewed on by sharks.

NASO: And this unique find gives paleontologists something to chew on for a while.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: And that report from Bridget Naso of CNN affiliate KUSI in San Diego. Thanks to her.

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