Hokkaido: Fossils found in Hokkaido more than a decade ago have recently been identified as belonging to a new right whale species. The fossil bones were first discovered by a citizen of Sapporo along the Toyohira River in the capital of the northernmost Japan’s prefecture of Japan in October 2008, leading to a Sapporo Museum Activity Center team’s years of work to unearth a nearly complete skeleton.

According to Philippines News Agency, scrutiny soon revealed the skeleton belonged to a new type of whale. This finding was detailed in a research article published in Palaeontologia Electronica, a British academic journal, earlier this month. The team named the whale “Megabalaena sapporoensis,” or “big right whale of Sapporo.”

They further found that the bones, including vertebrae and phalanges, were about nine million years old. The whale, in the family Balaenidae, or right whales, is believed to have existed in the Late Miocene period. It was approximately 13 meters long, making it larger than its most recent ancestors but smaller than distant ones.