A new species of whale with four legs has been unveiled in Egypt. It is more exactly his fossil that paleontologists have unearthed in the Fayum, south of Cairo, a region once covered by a sea. After several years of investigation, Egyptian researchers have just published their findings.
“The whale that we named “Fioumicetus anubis” lived 43 million years ago in the oasis of Fayoum. Its length was about three meters for a weight of 600 kilos. And so it was one of the biggest and fiercest predators in the area. This new species is important because it is amphibious with its four legs and it is therefore located halfway on the evolutionary chain of whales “, explains Abdalla Gohar, researcher at the center of paleontology of the University of Mansourah.
An anatomical study has shown that this new species is completely different from those already known. Its elongated skull and muzzle suggest it was a very efficient carnivore. She walked on land but also allegedly hunted in water.
“This is a very important find because it helps to document one of the missing links in the history of the whale. It was a terrestrial animal that became, like today, an entirely aquatic mammal.“, adds Hisham Salam, professor of paleontology at the University of Mansourah and at the American University of Cairo.
The new species is part of a long line of ancestors of our current whales. It has been classified in the family of “Protocetidae”, semi-aquatic whales that lived 59 to 34 million years ago. This discovery is the result of a four-year collaboration between Egyptian paleontologists and scientists based in the United States.
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