No pterodactyl, but a massive minke whale skull washes up on New Jersey beach

ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK, N.J. – No pterodactyl fossil washed ashore in Island Beach State Park this week, despite speculation from more than 1,000 Facebook users who commented on a photo of a massive skull in the sand.

Instead, it was a minke whale skull, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on Island Beach State Park's Facebook page, where a photo of the massive bone went viral this week.

Park police found the skull Monday near a beach access path, according to the environmental agency.

Minke whales are the smallest of the large baleen whales seen along New Jersey coasts, according to the environmental organization Save Coastal Wildlife. Minke adults can reach 29 to 33 feet long and weigh up to 10 tons, according to the organization.

Last summer, lifeguards in Spring Lake, a borough on the Jersey Shore, tried to save a minke whale that died after swimming into shallow surf. 

Minke whales are buried all over New Jersey

The skull found Monday is part of the remains of another minke whale that stranded and died last year, said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. That whale died at Island Beach State Park and was buried there in the sand, he said.

"We have whales buried all over New Jersey," Schoelkopf said. "Believe it or not, it's a lot simpler to put in the ground where it strands than try to load it up and spend $10,000 in equipment and everything else (to dispose of it elsewhere)."

Many of the minke whales that die off New Jersey succumb to boat strikes or disease, Schoelkopf said.

Though volunteers bury the carcasses deep enough in the sand that beachgoers are unaware the carcasses are there, powerful storms can uncover the remains, he said.

Anyone who finds whale bones cannot remove them, because they are federally protected animals, Schoelkopf said. 

"You cannot pick a bone up and take it home with you for display … and they can't be sold," he said. "Permits are needed to possess those bones."

Follow Amanda Oglesby on Twitter: @OglesbyAPP