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Ojai Valley Whale Society

Ojai Valley Whale Society - California's first fossilized 25,000,000 year-old toothed baleen whales were discovered at Lake Casitas on January 19, 2000 by Ojai resident Aaron Plunkett. Dr. Lawrence Barnes, chief paleontologist of the marine mammal lab at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, confirmed authenticity of the specimens brought to him by Mr. Plunkett. Dr. Barnes examined a lumbar vertebrae and two congruent right mandible jawbones deducing that two prehistoric whales exist.