Between the cliffs and the sea at Jan Juc, on Victoria’s Surf Coast, researchers scour the shore platform for evidence of life from 25m years ago, as beachgoers revel in the sand and surf nearby.
“You can be there discovering a fossil that might change our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth. And you’re sharing it with a family that’s just gone down to the beach for the day,” says Dr Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute.
As powerful Southern Ocean swells erode the rock face and shift massive boulders, a new fragment of whale bone might be revealed, or a battered shark tooth – remnants of the Oligocene, a pivotal moment in the history of the planet, and in the evolutionary story of whales.
For Fitzgerald, the place is “like a magnet”, with every visit offering the tantalising possibility of new discoveries.
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Fossils from Jan Juc have revealed the existence of tiny-toothed baleen whales such as Janjucetus dullardi, primitive dolphins with long narrow jaws, and “rather substantial” penguins over a metre tall – all likely to have been preyed upon by a large prehistoric sha
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