A post was made to MCN FB Group on 1st June about the discovery of a Sperm Whale lower jaw on Davis Beach.
We thought it worth going to take a look, even if there was a risk of it having been washed out to sea in the intervening 24 hours. Not only had it not been washed out but it would appear it has been dragged up the beach so save from being washed away. Judging by the number of footprints I suspect most of Mallacoota has been to look at it!
This gives the scale. The person is about 1.6m tall so the bone is about 3m long. From "
Great Whales" by John Bannister the head can be 40% of the body length and the lower jaw looks about 50% of the head suggesting the whole beast might have been 15m long. That arithmetic suggests it would have been a male, and a relatively large one.
No teeth left - the images shown on another visitor's phone suggest they are very impressive - which would be one of the things of interest to cetacean scientists but -astonishingly - no-one is currently studying them.
There were do dolphins visible in the sea but a few humans were enjoying the waves.
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