A whale which perished after being beached in a Danish fjord earlier on in the year is believed to have been between one hundred and thirty and one hundred and forty years old – which makes it one of the oldest known whales to date, officials commented this past Tuesday.
The age of the whale was determined through an analysis of the fin whale’s remains at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen.
It was initially believed that the whale was between fifteen and twenty years old. However, after having taken a closer look at the amino acids in the eyes of the remains, it has proved to be closer to between one hundred and thirty and one hundred and forty years old, commented Abdi Hedayat, a museum conservator, commented to the local paper Lokal-Bladet Budstikken.
“That makes it the world’s oldest, scientifically described whale,” he commented.
The oldest whale previously on record was a one hundred and sixteen year old fin whale.
The beached whale was sighted this past June at many different locations in western Denmark before becoming stranded in the Vejle Fjord. Many attempts where made to try and save the whale, however they all failed as the whale made its way back to shallower waters.
The whale’s epic struggle attracted the attention of hundreds of people. The whale was not that big, in total some seventeen meters in length, which is seven meters shorter than the biggest fin whale on record.
Hedayat commented that the ancient whale could have possibly been suffering from brittle bones, but that has yet to be confirmed.