Ancient whales

In ‘Ancient whales - fossils from the Westerschelde and the largest bite ever’ visitors discover unique fossils from the Westerschelde and come face to face with two colossi from the sea: the largest raptorial sperm whale ever found and the eye-catcher of the museum – the skeleton of the sperm whale that washed up on the beach near Scheveningen in 1995.

Scientific expeditions by the Natural History Museum Rotterdam on the Westerschelde yielded remarkable fossils between 2014 and 2019: heavy blocks of sandstone that contained virtually complete marine mammal skulls. Thousands of hours of fossil-prepping revealed the specimens are among the best-preserved in the whole of Europe. Scientific study showed that between 7.5 and 8.8 million years ago, at least six species of dolphins and whales lived in the primordial North Sea. These species turned out to be new to science. Never before, nor anywhere else had their fossils been found.

Researchers from the natural history museums of Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, Pisa and Lima discovered the remains of this 9 million year old sea monster in the desert of Peru in 2008. The complete animal was between 13 and 18 meters in length, with teeth measuring 36 centimeters. It turned out to be the largest raptorial sperm whale ever discovered. The Natural History Museum Rotterdam has a reconstruction of the skull. Raptorial sperm whales are extinct relatives of modern-day sperm whales. They had large teeth in both their upper and lower jaws, whereas the modern sperm whale only has a narrow and weak lower jaw with small teeth. Raptorial sperm whales hunted other whales and sharks, which they tore to pieces. Teeth of similar size were recovered from the Westerschelde. These show that giant raptorial sperm whales also occurred in the primordial North Sea!