Santa Cruz County construction crews spotted a fossilized vertebrae sticking out of the ground at Mid-County beach last month, which paleontologists have since identified as the remains of a whale, likely dating back five millions years. There will soon be an excavation of the site, the location of which will not be revealed. The whale is thought to be between 15 and 20 feet long, and the rock that it's attached to comes from the end of the Miocene Epoch. Experts are hoping to find the skull, which will help them ascertain whether the animal was an ancient Baleen whale, along the lines of today's plankton-feeding Humpbacks, or a meat-eating toothed whale, more closely related to the modern Orca.