A Portuguese scientist based in the USA came across the bone measuring 1.5 meters long and weighing hundreds of kilos. The bones are ancient, possibly from the Pleistocene period, and were potentially exhumed by recent storms.
A whale bone presumably thousands of years old, according to a paleontologist at (UC), was identified this Tuesday on Buarcos beach, north of the city of Figueira da Foz.
O pelvic bone, perfectly asymmetrical, about 1.5 meters long one meter wide and hundreds of kilos of weightwas discovered in the middle of the afternoon on the so-called Pedra Grande beach, by Sílvia Curado, a Portuguese scientist based in the USA, who was walking there accompanied by family members, the Lusa agency found on site.
“This is one of our favorite places in Figueira da Foz. I was walking with my nephew and I came across this structure, which wouldn’t be made of stone, because it’s too symmetrical, I got closer and saw that it was a bone from a large animal and came to the conclusion that it was a pelvic bone from a whale”, said Sílvia Curado, a finding also confirmed, on site, by a biologist.
Following the scientist’s discovery, Lusa contacted Pedro Callapez, a paleontologist from the Earth Sciences department at UC, who, given the images of the discovery, namely the bone structure in question, anticipated that it was a bone that was thousands of years old.
“What I can say is that, from the photographs, the state of degradation of the bones itself, it looks like that of an individual who is no longer modern. It is relatively common, on the coast of Figueira, north of Cape Mondego, that ancient sands appear on the continental shelf, which are sands from the time of the last glaciation. These are sands that are thousands of years old, sometimes tens of thousands of years old”, explained the researcher.
“And it is very possible that it could have been a bone from a whale – from a sperm whale, eventually, it would have to be confirmed – that It was buried a few thousand years ago. And it is quite possible that during the storms there was an exhumation of these bones that washed up on the coast”, observed Pedro Callapez.
“They may be older bones, thousands of years old, they are not fossil bonesif it were a fossil it would have to have some cementation and also a matrix placed in the cavities, in the bones and it is not, it is different”, added the specialist.
Pedro Callapez thus ruled out the hypothesis that it was a dinosaur bone: “It’s very different from that. But these are still bones with an ancient appearance. I would almost venture to say that they look like Pleistocene bones, which, in the meantime, washed up on the coast”, he added.
The researcher also said that this could be an interesting piece to be studied by museology specialists, namely at the Figueira da Foz Municipal Museum.
The Lusa agency contacted the captain of the Port of Figueira da Foz, Salvado Pires, about the bones found on Buarcos beach, and the person responsible called Maritime Police resources to the location.
