Channel Islands' buried porpoise is not the first such mysterious find

A porpoise jawbone, discovered in the Shetlands by a 1950s schoolboy as part of an ancient treasure hoard, raises similar questions about the significance these animals held for earlier people

The strange discovery of a porpoise skeleton interred in a medieval religious grave in the Channel Islands is evocative of a deep cultural connection between humans and cetaceans which we are only just beginning to understand.

It speaks to a different, historical relationship to the natural world - one which now appears to be coming full circle.