LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- There are only about 20 baleen whale fossils in the world. The latest is now sitting in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County after it was dislodged from the backyard of a suburban home over the weekend. The fossil is still wedged in a giant hung of rock, weighing more than 1,000 pounds.
On Saturday, the massive rock and its resident baleen whale fossil were pulled from a yard in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., using a series of pulleys and a steel trolley. The effort was aided by search-and-rescue volunteers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The whale is estimated to be roughly 16 or 17 million years old.