In 1784, during his Italian Journey, Goethe discovered the well-preserved skull of an extinct whale in a rock stratum. His observation led him to theorize that these creatures had once lived in the area, which implied that the land had once been the ocean floor. His findings and interpretations were early contributions to the development of the science of paleontology and the understanding of geological time and changes. This was remarkable given the era in which he lived, as the concept of "deep time" and the idea of extinct species only started to gain widespread acceptance in scientific communities later in the 19th century.