A large, spooky skull fragment, with two rows of jagged edges resembling teeth, washed ashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks this week.
Representatives of the US National Park Service (NPS), which maintains this Atlantic coastal region, reported that the skull fragment measured approximately 3 feet wide and 2 feet high, warning citizens not to attempt to remove the giant skull.
The skull fragment appeared on Hatteras Island, which gives its name to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, south of the village of Salvo, a coastal community surrounded by the oceanside national park.
NPS officials said the fragment was part of the “cranial cavity” of a sea creature and that the animal can grow up to It is 60 feet long and weighs up to 40 tons.
The apparently sharp teeth on the mysterious humpback whale skull were probably a cut region connecting the skull to another part of the body, since humpback whales are filter feeders and use a structure called baleen instead of teeth to suck up plankton and seaweed for your meals
“Take a look at this large portion of a humpback whale’s skull,” the park wrote in its Facebook post from May 15. On Wednesday.
‘Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have specialized cranial structures to support their unique feeding behaviors,’ park service officials noted.
The apparently sharp teeth on the skull were much more likely a severed region that had connected the skull to another part of the body, since humpback whales are filter feeders and use a protein structure called baleen, rather than teeth, to vacuum up plankton. and algae to feed on.
“Their skulls are relatively flexible, especially around the jaw joints, allowing them to open their mouths wide to consume large volumes of water and prey,” Cape Hatteras park officials said.
“They also have mandibles (lower jaws) that are not fused to the skull,” according to park officials, offering a clue as to how the skull was separated from the whale’s lower jaw.
According to fisheries statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), no fewer than 30 humpback whales have died along the North Carolina coast since 2016.
NPS officials attributed this phenomenon to the region’s history with hurricanes and shipwrecks, suggesting that North Carolina’s outer islands and their underwater geography can sometimes trap large marine mammals.
“Given their location on the Outer Banks, the barrier island chains extend into the Atlantic Ocean and are very close to the continental shelf,” they said, “and for this reason a large number of strandings occur within the boundaries of the park”.
But other humpback whales, according to NOAA expertsThey have died locally due to boat collisions, as well as fatal encounters that ensnared them in fishing gear.
Park officials attempted to warn civilians not to attempt to seize the impressive skull fragment as a personal trophy.
“Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is illegal to possess any part of the carcass and/or bones of a marine mammal,” they said.
“When the NPS finds them, if we can use them for education/research, we will (which requires several staff members to lift them!),” they continued, “or they will be removed and disposed of or reburied in the environment.”
Park officials encouraged the public to report any sightings of marine mammal strandings or sightings of sea turtle activity to the Cape Hatteras Stranding Hotline: 252-216-6892.
