Whales in the Fen
Discovery Near Peterborough
Remains of two whales, which must have lived 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. have been unearthed in a celery bed near Peterborough.
The discovery, of great interest to zoologists, was made by workers on Bassenholly Moor Farm, Thorney.
Dr Garrood, of Alconbury-hill, Huntingdonshire, visited the farm with two experts, and recovered the two skeletons.
It was clear the whales were of the toothed variety, and it was thought they were probably the Orca Gladiator (the killer whale or grampus), which has been frequently alluded to in books of Arctic exploration.
Not an Extinct Species
Closer inspection, and comparison with specimens in the museum at Cambridge, led experts to decide, however, that the species was Pseudorca Crassidens – first described by Sir Richard Owen in 1846, from a skull found in the Great Fen of Lincolnshire.
At first this species, having been found in semi-fossil state, was believed to be an extinct variety but it still exists in the North Sea, though extremely rare.
The Tasmanian grampus is the same animal; its length is 14 feet.
The animals found at Thorney were lying side by side under the peat, embedded in the clay.
On the whole the bones are in good condition, but, unfortunately, the skulls have been very much damaged in the work of excavation.
It is conjectured that many thousand years ago these two leviathans – and perhaps others – swam up the creek, when the Wash came further inland ) Thorney is 18 miles from the sea).
They were probably caught on the top og a spring tide and were unable to return.
Were They Hunters?
There is another, and a more romantic theory. Some years ago a prehistoric boat was dug up in the same field. It is suggested that its crew may have been hunting the whales. No prehistoric weapons of the harpoon order were found however, or any other evidence of human existence. These whales were carnivorous animals, however.
They may have made a meal of their hunters.
It is evident that the remains of the parts of the skeletons were somewhat displaced. Their heads were towards Peterborough, and their tails towards the sea.
Source: Skegness, Mablethorpe and Alford news 7th December 1921
Skegness Magazine 