Charlotte whale

[1] Found at the time when knowledge of Earth's natural history was nascent, it proved key evidence for developing a glacial theory of New England.

The whale skeleton was collected by Zadock Thompson and reconstructed by Albert David Hager in an unusual, anatomically incorrect manner.

Initially, it was mistaken for a horse skeleton and part of the whale's skull was destroyed in continued digging until a local resident, who recognized the bones as "unusual", managed to stop the digging, which allowed naturalist Zadock Thompson to collect and preserve the bones.

[2] In 1849, the discovery provoked a controversy, because initially, scientists were unable to account for how a skeleton of a marine mammal ended up buried in sediment 150[1] or 200[2] miles (240 or 320 km) from the nearest ocean shore.

Swiss geologist and biologist Louis Agassiz, who had produced the theory of glaciation and ice ages a decade earlier, based on his investigation of Alpine glaciers, was in Boston at the time and theorized that the same process happened in New England.

According to Howe, the Charlotte whale and the Mount Holly mammoth that had been found the previous year on the same railroad dig, were crucial evidence and motivation to research glaciation in New England.