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Just transferred these photos from my camera. When skiing on Nordkvaloya I was walking on this beach that probably very very seldom gets visited by humans. Found almost a full whale skeleton scattered around the beach. After I got back to where I have Internet connection I did some research and came to the very unscientific conclusion that these are from a baleen whale, most probably a humpback (since they're common here).

From their size you can tell that they are NOT from a fully grown adult whale, but still... The picture with my hand in it is a vertebrae... HUGE! Weighed around 20 kg or so.

I know that whales are big and the humpbacks that have come close to my boat are definitely much bigger than the boat... but actually touching and weighing the bones makes you appreciate the size even more.

The other two pictures are the lower jawbone (around 250 cm long) and part of the skull (not sure). The ski pole is 130 cm long (for reference. I also found the rostrum ("upper jawbone"), which was the biggest one at 350 cm long and weighed so much that I couldn't really lift it.

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Victor Raymond

Those are certainly massive bones. When the humpback whales bubble feed they make such a big splash you can tell they are heavy animals.

David C

Very cool. It must have been amazing seeing those in person! Thanks for sharing!