2023-08-11 20:36:31
archaeologists discovered in Egypt the bones of a whale from 41 million years ago, one of the “oldest extinct specimens in Africa”, reported this Thursday (08.10.2023) the American University of Cairo (AUC).
This whale was baptized as Tutcetus rayanensis, term that comes from the name of pharaoh Tutankhamen, from “cetus”, which means whale in Greek, and from Wadi al-Rayan, the Fayoum region, south of Cairo, where it was discovered.
It is “the smallest basilosaurid whale ever discovered to date and one of the oldest specimens of this species in Africa,” the AUC said in its statement.
“Crucial stage of land to sea evolution”
Their discovery represents a “crucial stage in the terrestrial to maritime evolution of whales,” explains Hicham Salam, a member of the research team that found a skull, jaws, bones and a vertebra of an animal 2.5 meters long and 187 kg.
During this stage, the whales “developed fish-like characteristics, such as a simplified body, a strong tail, or fins. In addition, they show the last traces of limbs visible enough to qualify as legs, which they probably used for reproduction and not to walk,” he detailed in the statement.
The fossil was found in a part of Egypt that was covered by the sea in the past, which also includes the Valley of the Whales, where “extremely valuable” fossil remains can be found, Unesco says.
In August 2021, Egyptian archaeologists have already discovered the fossil of a new 43-million-year-old amphibian whale species in the Fayoum region.
With its tail of more than three meters long and about 600 kilos, the Fioumicetus anubis, was presented by the Egyptian government as “the most ferocious and oldest whale in Africa”.
In 2018, a team of scientists discovered the first dinosaur skeleton in Africa, dating back more than 75 million years.
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