US DOLLAR
EURO
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR
CANADIAN DOLLAR
POUND STERLING
Product Description
All found in association with fossil Megalodon shark teeth, this is a fantastic THIRTY PIECE collection of various whale fossils ranging from vertebrae, jaw sections and ear bones of all types of cetaceans. Whales were the primary food source of the Megalodon shark, as well as prehistoric Great White sharks and the giant Mako shark, Isurus hastalis. Fossil shark teeth collections would be greatly enhanced by the inclusion in their display, of whale fossils such as this, as the two co-existed in the ancient seas.
Perfect for teaching aids or educational display, fossil hunts for children, or a really cool collection to scatter around fossil shark teeth of Megalodon, Great White and Isurus sharks. Unlike fossil whale teeth that are shed by the hundreds over the life of the whale, fossil bones are fragile and considerably more scarce and limited in numbers, rarely surviving the ravages of time.
HISTORY
Whales, dolphins and porpoises make up the group of air-breathing marine mammals called CETACEANS. This group is comprised of three sub-groups - the extinct ARCHAEOCETI, and two living types, the ODONTOCETI (toothed whales) and MYSTICETI (baleen whales). All have a body structure that is highly adapted for their marine environment. These features include paddle-like forelimbs, lack of external hind limbs, large tail for propulsion underwater, dorsally located nostrils for breathing just above the surface of the water, specialized ears for underwater hearing and a streamlined body profile for efficient hydrodynamic locomotion. Odontocetes are more prevalent and varied than Mysticetes. All of the smaller current living whales (porpoises, orcas, narwhals, pilots, etc.) and a few of the larger ones (Sperm Whale) are toothed (Odontocetes). Mysticetes include the largest animal that ever lived on the earth, the Blue Whale.
All cetaceans are carnivorous with a main diet consisting of fish, invertebrates and other marine mammals. Many cetacean fossils are found in sediments alongside fossil shark teeth and other marine vertebrates but whale fossils are much less common compared to other marine vertebrate fossils of the same period and region and whale fossils are often found in fragments or show evidence of predation by prehistoric sharks, no doubt, cetaceans most feared enemy in their prehistoric past.