In Egypt, scientists have discovered the remains of an extinct whale species that lived 41 million years ago. With an estimated length of 2.5 meters and an estimated body weight of 187 kilograms, the animal is the smallest species in the family of the so-called Basilosauridae.
The research team gave the previously unknown marine mammal species the scientific name Tutcetus rayanensis – after the pharaoh Tutankhamun and the Wadi El-Rajan reserve in the Fajum oasis, where the animal’s fossilized remains were found
Researcher Hescham Sallam of the American University of Cairo (AUC) spoke of a “remarkable discovery” that documents one of the first stages of the transition to an exclusively aquatic life.
Last whales with hind legs
The basilosaurids had “evolved fish-like features”, such as a streamlined body, swimming fins and flukes. They were also the last whales with hind legs still recognizable as “legs,” Sallam said in a statement from the AUC. These were no longer used for running, “but possibly for mating”.
In the Fajum Basin, about 150 kilometers southwest of Cairo, lies the so-called Valley of the Whales, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Hundreds of fossils of some of the oldest whale species have been found here. The area of Northern Egypt was under a tropical sea during the Eocene 56 to 34 million years ago.
Source: Krone
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