LAGUNA NIGUEL : Baleen Whale Fossil Unearthed, Moved

For 4 million years or so, the skeletal remains of a 26-foot-long baleen whale have been resting in a local hillside that was once at the bottom of the ocean.

But on Thursday, under the anxious eyes of local paleontologists, reporters and even schoolchildren, the remarkably intact whale fossil, enclosed in a protective frame, was lifted by a hydraulic crane from its ancient home, bound for a new one in a public display case at Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in Buena Park.

“This particular whale will probably rank among the top five in the country,” said John Minch, whose environmental firm was hired by the Transportation Corridor Agencies to locate and remove significant fossils along the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor.

Not only is the fossil almost totally intact, but it also marks the first time a pelvic girdle, comparable to a human hip bone, has been found with a whale fossil, Minch said. Such a find gives paleontologists more clues about how whales evolved.

Officials say the fossil, a full-grown adult of undetermined sex, also belongs to a species of baleen whale previously unknown. Minch said he and associate Thomas Leslie are proposing to name the species Balaenoptera joaquinensis . For now, they just call it “Joaquin.”

In preparation for the 30-mile trip by flatbed truck to the county park, crews placed support beams under the fossil, separated it into three sections, then built a wood and plaster frame around it, a task that took several weeks to complete. The frames holding the fossil were wrapped in cellophane to keep pieces of bone from breaking off during the hourlong truck ride.

This is the first time a large whale specimen has been removed in this way, but officials wanted to get it on display as quickly as possible, Minch said. The fossil will be on public display starting today, officials said.

Paleontologists with Minch’s firm discovered the fossil in April during a pre-construction survey along a planned section of the 15-mile San Joaquin Hills toll road. Construction on the first stretch of the tollway is set for this summer.

Joaquin is not the only rare and remarkable fossil to be discovered in the Laguna Niguel hillside as part of the tollway project. Paleontologists recently found a well-preserved skull of an ancient penguin-like bird called a Mancala, a rare find since bird fossils are paper-thin and easily crushed, said county paleontologist Steven W. Conkling. Like the whale fossil, the skull is about 4 million years old.

The abundance of well-preserved fossils indicates that the hillside was once at the bottom of the ocean, at least 2,000 feet deep, where currents were gentle and predators scarce, Conkling said.

All fossils found along the route are being donated to the Orange County Natural History Assn.