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THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



which would be occui)ied by these limbs 

 if present. The hind limb must have 

 disappeared at a very early stage in the 

 evolution of whales, but one of the 

 most remarkable and instructive hap- 

 penings in connection with this question 

 was the discovery in Canadian waters 

 some two years ago, of a whale with a 

 pair of well developed hind limbs each 

 over four feet long. 



Whales are divided into two groups, 

 those with teeth and those without. 

 The latter group live on very small 

 organisms in the water, these organisms 

 being secured by a very efficient sifting 

 out apparatus into the complex struc- 

 ture of which we will not enter here. 

 Sufficient to say that it is composed of 

 plates of horny material called " whale- 

 bone . ' ' But even in these ' ' whalebone 

 whales it is found that the embryo de- 

 velops a series of ordinary teeth which 

 are later on shed and their place taken 

 by the above-mentioned plates of 

 whalebone. 



It is however with the '' toothed "' 

 whales — dolphins, porpoises, "' killers,"" 

 sperm whales and the like — that we 

 are more concerned in this article and 

 we will, I hope, be able to elucidate some 

 of the chief features in the story of 

 their evolution. 



The story is of particular interest to 

 us because recently there have been 

 found, in the cliff beds at Table Cape, 

 Tasmania, near the little town of 

 Wynyard, the fossil bones of a very 

 ancient whale, whose wonderful con- 

 dition of ])reservation entitles it to 

 rank as one of the finest fossils yet 

 discovered. A cast of the skull and 

 jaw of this whale has now been placed 

 on exhibition in the fossil gallery of the 

 Australian Museum. A photo, of this 

 exhibit is shown on this page. 



The specimen was observed in the 

 face of a precipitous cliff, Avhose base if> 

 washed by the waves of the sea at high 

 water. It was necessary to construct 

 a platform for convenience in removing 

 the remains. This was a matter of 

 some difficulty, but the result paid for 

 the trouble. 



I have named this new whale after 

 Sir T. W. Edgeworth David, the great 

 Australian geologist and teacher, whose 



Cast of the Tasmanian fossil whale as exhibited 



in the Fossil Gallery of the Australian 



Museum. Il'hcitci— G. ('. Cliittuii. 



reputation has extended far l)eyond the 

 country in which his work is carried 

 on. 



The mind of the ordinary mortal 

 cannot conceive of the age of the beds 

 in which the fossil was found. They 

 cannot be less than some 20,000,000 

 years old — the age of Tutankhamen"s 

 tomb is a mere trifle by com])arison. 



A fearsome tooth, notable for 



its massive strength and a 



form which makes for 



great cutting and 



shearing power. 



I Photo. — G. C. Clutton. 



This ancient whale was extremely 

 fierce, and Avas a fish feeder. It pos- 

 sessed extraordinary teeth one of which 

 is pictured here. Notice, the shark 

 like nature of this tooth. It is made for 

 cutting and grasping. No whale of the 

 present time has teeth like it. Yet 

 we can never tell what scientific sur- 

 prises the depths of the sea may hold 

 in store for us. In his evidence before 



