The Great Whale of Kansas

As a young boy begins to dig a hole in his back yard, his shovel suddenly strikes something hard, and big, as it turns out, in more ways than one. What he discovers, preserved in the Cretaceous limestone is more spectacular than anything the town of Melville, Kansas, has ever seen before—something that should perhaps be left to the experts, or should it? As the determined eleven-year-old continues to dig, outlines of an ancient creature emerge, but what is it? And more importantly to some, whose is it?