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Took this photo of an unnamed eschrichtiid from the Pliocene San Diego Formation of San Diego County in March 2019. Until the 2000s, the fossil record of gray whales was confined to the Pleistocene, but thanks to the work of Michelangelo Bisconti, it is apparent that gray whales emerged about the same time as the oldest rorquals (Eschrichtioides was long considered a balaenopterid, but eventually recognized as a gray whale relative).

Hey all, Our collections manager and I have had a pretty busy week, and finished the first phase of the installation of the "Cone Whale" - a baleen whale skeleton collected from the Lee Creek Mine by Lee Cone (President of the Special Friends of the Aurora Museum). The specimen is the most complete whale skeleton ever collected from the mine, and was hauled out a few bones at a time over a two week period in Spring 2007. It includes a partial disarticulated cranium with an earbone (petrosal/periotic), left and right mandibles, all cervical vertebrae, most of the thoracics, and possibly a couple of lumbar vertebrae - and about a dozen ribs. The skeleton also has numerous shark bite marks, which just yesterday we marked with a series of red triangular markers. The new exhibit features artwork by yours truly, shark-bitten ribs in a magnifying box, and in the future will also include a number of specimens that the "Cone Whale" was preserved with. The "Cone Whale" shares a number of features in common with rorquals (family Balaenopteridae - the pleat-throated whales, e.g. humpback, fin, blue, minke) and gray whales (family Eschrichtiidae). The two families are closely related, with gray whales possibly being included within the rorquals based on DNA. Fossils like this hold promise to shed light on the early diversification of this group. The "Cone Whale" is a new species and was not represented amongst the fossils described in the Whitmore and Kaltenbach chapter of the Lee Creek IV volume - I've only seen a couple of other earbones of this taxon, so it is safe to say that this is the rarest baleen whale from the mine (and hence, a very lucky find). Lee Cone graciously donated this specimen to our museum in October 2016 and we've been painstakingly caring for it, and attempting to further reassemble fragments of the specimen. Turns out, Lee was nearly exhaustive in his efforts, and we've only been able to match perhaps 10% of the isolated fragments. The entire skeleton is highly fractured because it went through a dragline and was dumped - yet all the bones stayed in approximate position. Many parts were found by bulk screening of sediment. Come see the "Cone Whale" at College of Charleston soon - it opens to the public today for the first time ever! "Like" our page on Facebook or follow us on twitter for more frequent museum news and updates! -Bobby Boessenecker, Ph.D. College of Charleston Charleston, SC