Was there really a whale skeleton in Jaffa?

score:8

It had to have been Pliny.

Who else would record such a thing? I turned it up in Book IX concerning marine animals.

The linked text from part 11 is in Latin. Thru Google translate produces

Turranius betrayed a wild beast that had been expelled on the shores of Gadita, the length of which was sixteen cubits between the two fins of the last tail, the teeth of the same 120, the measure of the largest teeth, the smallest half a foot. The bones of the beast, to which Andromeda was said to have been exposed, were brought to Rome from the Judean town of Joppa, and among other miracles he showed in his aedilium M. Scaurus, whose length was 40 feet, the height of the ribs exceeding that of Indian elephants, and the thickness of the spine a half foot.

Jaffa is variously referred to as Joppe or Joppa.

Willk 613

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Was there really a whale skeleton in Jaffa?

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