Teen Discovers Ancient Whale Skull

For years, 16-year-old Lindsey Stallworth has collected fossilized shells and shark teeth on her family’s farm in Alabama. But in June 2023, she and her biology teacher, Andrew Gentry, made a much bigger discovery on the property: the skull of a prehistoric whale. “I couldn’t believe it was
real!” says Lindsey.

The pair moved the 1.2 meter (4 foot)-long skull to Gentry’s lab at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science. There, students are helping to clean and study the bones.

The fossilized remains of extinct whales have been found throughout Alabama. That’s because the area was once covered in a shallow sea. The whale Lindsey found is about 33.9 million years old, dating back to the Oligocene period. During that time, the climate shifted from warm and tropical to an ice age, which caused many whale species to go extinct. This rare specimen could offer new clues about how modern whales evolved and how their ancestors survived the changing climate.