A research group of the History Faculty of Kim Il Sung University, together with officials of the Myonggan County Management Office for the Protection of National Heritage, conducted survey and excavation work in Hosan-ri from July Juche 110 (2021) to February this year.

In the course, they discovered one piece of fossil skull, ten pieces of fossil ribs and 12 pieces of fossil vertebra of whale, and four fossil tree leaves, 260 sporomorph and 18 fossilized unicellular plants in the middle stratum of the Miocene belonging to the Neogene of the Cenozoic period.

The Faculty of History and the Faculty of Resource Science of Kim Il Sung University confirmed that the newly discovered fossil (about 8 meters long) was the fossil whale that died away on the earth after living in the middle stratum (15.97 million - 11.63 million years ago) of the Miocene belonging to the Neogene of the Cenozoic period, and identified it as the Myonggan fossil whale.

Through the study of sporomorph and fossilized unicellular plants, they also proved that the then Hosan-ri area consisting of vast sea and land had natural and climatic conditions favorable for animals and plants.

The discovery of fossil whale, sporomorph and fossilized unicellular plants has provided a material foundation for scientific study of the origin and evolution of whales in Korea and its ecological environment. This also makes it possible to clearly prove that the evolution of animals and plants including mammals continued in the Miocene (23.03 million - 5.33 million years ago) of the Neogene of the Cenozoic period and there were enough paleobiological prerequisites favorable for the birth of mankind.

The Myonggan fossil whale was registered as natural monument No. 299.