(Xinhua News Agency)
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DPRK discovers whale bone fossils
PYONGYANG, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has discovered whale bone fossils dating back 10,000 years, according to official news agency KCNA.
KCNA reported Tuesday the fossils were found on the lower Songchon River in Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province.
It said scientific analysis showed the fossils to be a left lower jaw and second cervical vertebra of an arctic whale.
The lower jaw is some 70 kg in weight and 2.27 meters in length and the cervical vertebra weighs some 18 kg and is 40 cm high and 52 cm wide, according to the report.
It is believed that, when alive, the whale was some 100 tons in weight and 18-18.5 meters in length, the report said.
It was the first time such large whale bone fossils had been discovered in the DPRK, it said.
Won Chol Guk, a department chief of Kim Il Sung University, said it proved such mammoth vertebrates as arctic whales had lived in the East Sea of Korea some 10,000 years ago.
The find was significant in studying the evolution of marine vertebrates and ecological environment at that time, Won said.
Copyright 2010 Xinhua News Agency
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