After the Beer Parlour Project outing in Acme, I headed over to East Coulee and stayed there for the night. The guys in the shop have been working on prepping the skeleton of a modern Blue Whale. The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth. Not this specimen particularly, but the species in general. Some of the dinosaurs were considerably longer or taller, but by weight, the blue whale is the largest. A land animal of this size would not possibly have evolved as the weight is just too great to be supported by limbs. Only an animal that lived in water could have grown to this mass.
The skull of this particular specimen was damaged, so the guys created a replica carved from foam, supported by a steel armature, and coated with plastic. The lower jaws are real, and are visible in one of the snap shots. The skull is visible in the second last snap shot below. It is suspended overhead from the main beam in the shop, in an upside down position. That was mostly just to get it out of the way, so that there was more floor space for working on the rest of the bones.
The team also made a scale model of the whale. That model is probably about 10 feet long or so, and is about one tenth the size of the real thing.
The project has been ongoing for a couple of years now, and is nearing completion. At this point in time we are just waiting for the project engineer to design the steel structure on which the bones will be mounted. My understanding is that it is to be displayed outdoors.
The bones belong to a client down in the United States and I am not a liberty to say where the completed skeleton will be going. Stay tuned, as we will be able to announce that following completion.
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