'An important paleontological find': Portugal’s storms expose rare 10 million-year-old whale fossils

Two fossilised whale skeletons, thought to be around 10 million years old, have been discovered on a Portuguese beach.

The partial skeletons were identified at the end of last week following excavation work to the north of Galé-Fontainhas beach, in the municipality of Grândola. Several national and international palaeontologists participated in the dig.

The efforts began after heavy storms shifted the sand and exposed what appeared to be fossils.

This led the municipality to request support from the Lourinhã Museum, "an institution with vast experience in the extraction of large fossils", a press release states.

Once permission had been granted, following a meeting with the relevant authorities, a team made up of palaeontologists from the Lourinhã Museum, the Dom Luiz Institute (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon) and the National Museum of Natural History and Science, and technicians from the municipality, was mobilised to begin the palaeontological work.

Because access to the site was "limited by the tides", it was necessary to carry out a "complex operation of excavation, conservation, packaging and transport of the fossils".

According to the local authority's explanation, the recent storms left a slab of sedimentary rock more than 100 metres long exposed.

"These rocks belong to the Alcácer do Sal Formation, deposited during the Miocene, in a shallow marine environment, more precisely between the upper Serravalian and the lower Tortonian, around 10 million years ago," the municipality explained.