Home › Extinct Whales and Wombats › Extinct Whales and Wombats: Zeuglodon

Extinct Whales and Wombats: Zeuglodon

The oldest known whale is the curious Zeuglodon, from the marine Eocene strata of Alabama. At Claiborne, according to Sir Charles Lyell, there occur numerous species of shells, besides many sea-urchins (echinoderms) and abundance of sharks' teeth. But the most remarkable remains found there are those of the EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 295 extinct whale, known as Zeuglodon cetoides,¹ and so called from the yoke-like form of its double-fanged molar teeth, which are six inches in length. It has also been found in Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and Egypt. No strata of later date than the Eocene period contain its remains, as far as we know; and it has never been found out of the Northern Hemisphere. Zeuglodon must certainly have been a very remarkable creature, and it is to be hoped that palæontologists will some day meet with a complete skeleton, such as may afford the material for showing its entire bony structure. Unfortunately, although a great many finds have been made in Alabama, no complete skeleton has yet been got together. The remains of at least forty individuals have been met with, so that we may venture to say that this ancient cetacean once flourished vigorously. So numerous are the vertebræ in the above-mentioned locality that it is said they are used for making fences, and that farmers even burn the bones in order to get rid of them! How little they know that hundreds of museum curators all over the world would be only too glad to procure some of this "rubbish"! With the spread of education, and an increasing desire to learn a little about the former history of our world, let us hope that in time agriculturists will endeavour to co-operate with men of science in rescuing from destruction the fossilised remains of the earth's former inhabitants.

Sir R. Owen declared the Zeuglodon to have been "one of the most extraordinary of the Mammalia which the revolutions of the globe have blotted out of the number of existing beings." Some of the vertebræ found in Alabama have a length of eighteen inches, and a diameter of twelve inches, while the whole of the backbone, or vertebral column, has been found undisturbed. 1 Greek-zeuglé, yoke; odous, odontos, tooth.

Sir Charles Lyell said: "The vertebral column of one skeleton found by Dr. Buckley at a spot visited by me, extended to a length of nearly seventy feet, and, not far off, part of another backbone, nearly fifty feet long, was dug up. I obtained evidence, during a short excursion, of so many localities of this fossil animal within a distance of ten miles, as to lead me to conclude that they must have belonged to at least forty individuals."

This animal is particularly interesting as marking the first appearance of the very distinct order of cetaceans, so unlike any other order, except the Sirenia (Manatee and Dugong). Professor D'Arcy Thompson thinks that Zeuglodon and other members of its family are related to the seals, and have no direct affinities with the cetacea; their teeth certainly are very similar, but unfortunately we do not at present know what their limbs were like though one would expect, from the long pointed head of Zeuglodon, that the body also was long like a whale's, and adapted for rapid progress through the water, rather than for progression on land. One cannot easily picture a creature with such a skull walking on the land, even in the awkward manner of a seal; but we must wait for further evidence on this point. A portion of a skull of Zeuglodon was found in the Barton Clay, an Eocene deposit in Hampshire.1 We have already recorded one or two cases in which curious mistakes have been made by palæontologists; but the student soon finds how many and great are the difficulties that have to be overcome by those who study lost forms of life, difficulties which in most cases are due to the imperfection of the material 1 The late Professor Dames, of Berlin, has described certain bony plates found with Zeuglodon remains, which probably indicate that its back was protected by an armour of scutes (see Natural Science, vol. iv. p. 175). EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 297 at their command, or the bad state of preservation in which the specimens are often found. The old saying, "Humanum est errare," is particularly true of palæontological workers. But, at least, it can be said of them that they are honest, and never attempt to delude the public. There have, however, occasionally arisen enterprising persons, more desirous of making money than of furthering scientific truth, who have, for a time, succeeded in the grossest deceptions. Matzuyer, about 1613, exhibited some Mastodon bones as those of a human giant (Teutoboccus rex) and made a great stir in France; and now we have to record another case in connection with Zeuglodon.

In the year 1845, Dr. Albert Koch exhibited a large skeleton of a fossil animal, under the name Hydrarchos Sillimani, the former of which would mean "King of the Sea," while the latter seemed to indicate the approval of Professor Silliman. (The name is tempting to a punster.) These remains consisted of a head and vertebral column, measuring in all one hundred and fourteen feet, a few ribs and parts of some supposed paddles. Dr. Koch made the public believe that all the bones had been found together in such a way as to prove that they belonged to a single individual, and that the numerous vertebræ formed a connected series. This, however, was a mere fabrication, as was shown by Professor Wyman, who says "these remains never belonged to one and the same individual," and that the anatomical characters of the teeth prove them to be, not those of a reptile, but of a warm-blooded mammal. He came to the conclusion that the greater part of the bones belonged to the genus Basilosaurus (King-saurian) of Harlan, a name which the American geologists still retain for Zeuglodon. This skeleton represented at least two separate individuals.

The following letter on the subject, from the well-known geologist, Dr. G. A. Mantell, appeared in The Illustrated London News of November 4, 1848 :- "SIR, "Will you allow me to correct a statement that appeared in the last number of your interesting publication? The fossil mentioned at the conclusion of the admirable notice of the so-called sea-serpent, as having been exhibited in America under the name Hydrarchos Sillimani, was constructed by the exhibitor, Koch, from bones collected in various parts of Alabama, and which belonged to several individual skeletons of an extinct marine cetacean, termed Basilosaurus by the American naturalists, and better known in this country by that of Zeuglodon, a term signifying yoked teeth. Mr. Koch is the person who, a few years ago, had a fine collection of fossil bones of elephants and mastodons, out of which he made up an enormous skeleton and exhibited it in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, under the name Missourium. This collection was purchased by the trustees of the British Museum, and from it were selected the bones which now constitute the matchless skeleton of a mastodon in our National Gallery of organic remains [then in the British Museum]. Not content with the interest which the fossils he collected in various parts of the United States possess, Mr. Koch, with the view of exciting the curiosity of the ignorant multitude, strung together all the vertebræ he could obtain of Basilosaurus, and arranged them in a serpentine form, manufactured a skull and claws, and exhibited the monster as a fossil sea-serpent, under the above-mentioned name, Hydrarchos. But the trick was immediately exposed by the American naturalists, and the true nature of the fossil bones pointed out.1 1 After this, Koch's sea-serpent was carried to Dresden. EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 299 "Bones of the Basilosaurus have been found in many parts of Alabama and South Carolina, in greensand belonging to a very ancient Tertiary formation; hundreds of vertebræ, bones of the extremities, portions of the cranium and of the jaws with teeth have from time to time been collected. Remains of species of the same genus have also been found near Bordeaux and in Malta. "Professor Owen has shown that the original animal was a marine cetacean, holding an intermediate position between the Cachalots and the herbivorous species. It must have attained a length equal to that of the largest living whales, for a series FIG. 110. Head of Squalodon, from Miocene strata, Bavaria. of vertebræ was observed in situ that extended in a line sixty-five feet. ... "GIDEON ALGERNON MANTELL. "19, Chester Square, Pimlico, Oct. 31, 1848."