FOSSILISED BONE OF WHALE - about 10 million years old - Bawdsey, Suffolk
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Part of a whale rib
Bawdsey Beach, Suffolk
During the Miocene period East Anglia was submerged beneath a shallow sea and bones of whales were buried in sand on the sea floor. Millions of years later, during the Pliocene period, these bones were exhumed by erosion and reburied in a sandy deposit called the Red Crag.
Along the coast of Suffolk and Essex there are cliffs consisting of Red Crag and these fossilised bones are often washed out of the cliffs onto the local beaches.
They were rounded by natural abrasion on the sea floor millions of years ago before they were buried by the Red Crag sand.
Along the coast of Suffolk and Essex there are cliffs consisting of Red Crag and these fossilised bones are often washed out of the cliffs onto the local beaches.
They were rounded by natural abrasion on the sea floor millions of years ago before they were buried by the Red Crag sand.
Size: 10.5 x 6 x 1.5 centimetres.
Weight: 246 grams
