A whale flies: helicopter hoists fossil skull from creek bed

November 21st, 2008, 12:47 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

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LAKE FOREST A cheer went up Friday as a helicopter lifted a fossil whale skull out of Aliso Creek, cleared the treetops and deposited the load in the back of a dump truck, to be taken to Orange County’s fossil warehouse in Santa Ana.

It was the second try after a failed attempt Wednesday.

“I got total tears going,” Lloyd Sample, an LSA Associates Inc. paleontologist, said when the airlift was done.

The skull, believed to be that of a right whale that died five million years ago, is locked in a clump of rock that also contains parts of a dolphin, including a rare fossilized flipper, shark’s teeth, and remnants of a seal or sea-lion-like creature. The whole thing is encased in plaster. (The load before its removal is shown here; photo by Steve Zylius.)

It’s a trove of animals from a long-vanished time, when most of Orange County was under water.

Many fossil whales are found in Orange County, but not all are high priority finds for paleontologists, said Rob Selway, a retired program administrator for the county’s historic parks who came to watch the airlift.

“It’s a really valuable one,” he said of the find.

The portion of skull is believed to belong to a right whale.

“There are few skulls found during this time period,” said Meredith Staley, an LSA paleontologist. “There’s a good chance that it’s a new species — a species new to science.”

But officials from OC Public Works and LSA, an environmental consulting firm, were in suspense Friday as they watched the operation begin.

The load, which weighs as much as 4,000 pounds, could only be guessed at by paleontological consultants who prepared the fossil for removal. When the same helicopter was used to try to lift it Wednesday, the load never got off the ground. The pilot had to abandon the attempt.

The paleontologists wondered if they would have to spend weeks taking apart their carefully prepared package to lighten it for another try.

But the operators of the helicopter, owned by the private firm, Airlift Construction Services, tried a different approach.

This time they sent up the chopper with less fuel on board, less equipment and one less person — a spotter, who had been onboard during the first attempt.

Lightening the helicopter did the trick. A group of scientists and county public works officials, and a few spectators, gave a cheer when they saw the helicopter rising from the creek bed with the load at the end of its line.

The whale skull will join an assortment of fossils and artifacts in Santa Ana that has been collected over many years, but await scientists to clean, prepare and study them. The county paid for the $35,000 move.

The skull was found by an amateur paleontologist during a hike in 2006. During excavation, the paleontological consultants realized that fossilized pieces of other creatures were also present.

Leaving them in the water channel would have exposed the fossils to damage.

“If we didn’t take them out, they’d be destroyed,” Staley said.

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