Scientists have learned more about how whales evolved. A fossil of a four-legged cetacean has been found in Egypt. the animal species, Phiomicetus anubis, probably lived about 43 million years ago.
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Lead researcher Abdullah Gohar speaks to Reuters news agency of an important find. “It’s a new whale species. This find is important for Egyptian and African paleontology.” The study by Gohar and his team was published on Wednesday in The Royal Society.
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big jaws
Parts of the skeleton have been found in the Western Desert in Egypt. That area used to be under water, so scientists now regularly find fossils there. The Phiomicetus anubis weighed an estimated 600 kilograms and was 3 meters long. The whale was a predator and had large jaws for grasping prey.
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The animal’s name refers to Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead. The animal belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that was in the middle of the transition from land to marine animals.
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On land and at sea
This is not the first time that the fossil of a four-legged whale has been found. However, it is not yet entirely clear how exactly whales have evolved. With the discovery of this amphibious whale, which lived both on land and in the sea, it is probably the first of its kind found in Africa.
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