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Ancient whale fall from California's Aņo Nuevo Island one ofContact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley
Ancient whale fall from California's Aņo Nuevo Island one of youngest, most complete known
11 million to 15 million-year-old fossil whale puts limit on origin of oily, buoyant bones in whales
| Quote: | Berkeley -- A fossilized whale skeleton excavated 20 years ago amid the stench and noise of a seabird and elephant seal rookery on California's Aņo Nuevo Island turns out to be the youngest example on the Pacific coast of a fossil whale fall and the first in California, according to University of California, Berkeley, paleontologists.
Whale falls, first recognized in the 1980s, are whale carcasses that fall to the deep-ocean floor where, like an oasis in the desert, they attract a specialized group of clams, crabs and worms that feed for up to decades on the oil-rich bones and tissues.
Some scientists think these random, deep-ocean oases are stepping stones for organisms moving from one ocean floor environment to another - whether a hot vent, a cold seep or a whale carcass - in search of sustenance from energy-rich chemicals. |
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/uoc--awf091307.php
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