I'd say this is independent evidence of and good evidence for the Whale-eater theory I have been promoting the last several years. After a little research I found out the traditional name actually is "Whale Eater" after you translate it, in many locations.
Getty Photographer Matt Cardy on a stranded fin whale that died off the St Austell coast
Getty photographer Matt Cardy photographed a fin whale that was stranded on a beach off the St Austell coast in England on August 13.He says it was the first time for him photographing a distressed whale and a first time for most of the rescuers to have dealt with such a large mammal at 20 meters (65 ft). Fin whales are the second largest animal on the planet and an endangered species.
According to Cardy, he was listening to the 7 p.m. BBC headlines in his car when the broadcast reported news of the whale. A quick check of his satellite navigation, revealed that he was less than an hour away, so he headed to the beach – a random chance that he was so close that evening.
Below, he describes the surreal scene.
The crowd were very somber and quiet. As soon as I arrived, I was told that there was little anybody could do as the animal was too sick to be helped.
I was allowed into the cordon to photograph the whale at a much nearer distance. I used a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 and a 24-105mm lens on 2x 5D Mark II’s, shifting to 3200 ISO at a 60/sec. Eventually, the animal went through what we later realized were its death throes, opening its mouth and swashing its tail. After 15 minutes or so, it settled down, and the rescuers examined it and pronounced it dead.It was a very sad end to an event that had happened all really quickly.
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Edited by Stokely Baksh
[Closeup of the wounds on the head. Something with enormous elongated jaws had seized the whale and was worrying it to death. The whale escaped but was traumatised and eventually beached itself in a state of starvation. This was not the bite of a sperm whale or any other known large marine predator.-DD]
Scott Mardis sent in a second copy of this report (filling in the pages that had not printed in the first posting of this blog article owing to a technical glitch) and he added a couple of additional illustrations
And he adds "This is not the bite of a sperm whale, the tooth row is different"
And yes I have records of similar bite marks reported from before. This is the first time they have been photographed and so well documented. But I had heard of such things as far back as the 1970s when I was going through Ivan Sanderson's archives. Reports at that time were unsubstantiated allegations only, unfortunately. we needed to wait forty years more before we had good documentation. Special thanks to Max Hawthorne for doing so well on this report.
If a large uncatalogued cryptid marine reptile did this I'd guess it to be a mosasaur rather than a pliosaur because pliosaurs were unable to compete with mosasaurs durring the cretaceous and died out before the K-T extinction event, didn't they?
ReplyDeleteDid they? Lord knows what research and modern findings will unearth. My research rules out a mosasaur, however. Based on gape/skull size, it would have to be a creature over 100' long. Also, the tooth marks indicate very large, penetrating teeth, not the numerous, smaller, gripping teeth a mosasaur had(s). Also, the teeth are relatively few in number, most likely indicating an older specimen - possibly the reason the whale escaped in the first place. Best, Max
ReplyDeleteI would not rule Mosasaurs out myself, some did have similar tooth rows and there is of course a lot of variability within the category. There is also a lot of variability among the Pliosaurs and both Scott Mardis and I are looking over the various candidate fossil species at this time The reports on record also definitely specify something that grows over a hundred feet long, with a head somewhere in the range of ten to fifteen feet long, minimum. That part is in good agreement at least.
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