Whale skull fossil believed to be 14-million years old

Around 150km south-east of the US capital, Washington DC, the sandy cliffs of Chesapeake Bay yielded a massive fossil find in July 2013 – a whale skull estimated to be around 14-million years old.

The skull lay hidden for millennia under layers of mud and sand in a bank of the Potomac River. It was discovered by Jon Bachman, who has been hunting for fossils along the river for the past 25 years.

Bachman spotted a piece of bone sticking out of the cliff and immediately recognised it as part of a skull.

The river, which forms a natural border between Maryland and Washington DC, flows into the Chesapeake Bay and is a popular fossil-hunting site among amateur archaeologists.

The fossil skull is about 1.8m long and is believed to weigh about 450kg. It was excavated in July from the cliffs at the edge of the Potomac on the grounds of Stratford Hall, the home of Virginia’s Lee family.

The location is the birthplace of Robert E Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War.

The remainder of the skeleton, which experts believe belongs to a long-extinct baleen whale, is still embedded in the sandy cliffs awaiting excavation.

View this CBS News clip on YouTube about the find: