Archaeologists have discovered the bones of a whale that lived in Egypt 41 million years ago. It is one of the “oldest specimens of its family in Africa”, now extinct, the American University in Cairo (AUC) announced on Thursday. This whale was named Tutcetus Rayanensis, from the name of the child pharaoh Tutankhamun, from “cetus”, which means the whale in Greek, and from Wadi al-Rayan, the region of Fayoum, south of Cairo, where it was discovery.
It is “the smallest basilosaurid whale discovered to date,” the AUC said in a statement. The discovery of this fossil represents a “crucial step in the terrestrial-to-maritime evolution of whales”, according to Hicham Salam, a member of the research team who found an animal’s skull, jaws, bones and vertebra. 2.5 meters long for 187 kg.
During the Eocene (56 to 33.9 million years ago), whales “developed fishy characteristics, such as a simplified body, a powerful tail, fins. They show the last signs of limbs visible enough to qualify as legs, probably not used for walking but for reproduction.
The fossil was found in a part of Egypt once covered by sea, where the Valley of the Whales is also located, which contains “priceless” fossil remains, according to Unesco. Already in August 2021, Egyptian archaeologists discovered the fossil of a new species of amphibian whale dating back 43 million years in the Fayoum region.
More than three meters long and about 600 kilos, the Fioumicetus anubis, was then presented by Egypt 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.
