Scientists have identified a new species of ancient miniature whale, which is now thought to be the smallest known basilosaurid to ever exist.
Remnants from the whale, named the Tutcetus rayanensis after the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, were found in 2012 embedded in limestone rock in the Fayum Depression in Egypt, located about 70 miles southwest of Cairo, said Abdullah Gohar, a paleontology Ph.D. student at Mansoura University who co-authored a new study inIncluded in the fossils were a skull, jaw, teeth and vertebrae fragments dating to about 41 million years ago, according to researchers.
A rendering show two individuals of the extinct basilosaurid whale Tutcetus rayanensis, with the foreground individual preying on a nautilid cephalopod and another swimming in the background.Previous research has suggested that animals tend to evolve smaller body sizes in warmer climates. The Fayum Depression is well known for Paleogene deposits, Sallam said, adding that there are likely hundreds more ancient whale skeletons in the area that are yet to be discovered.Ancient basilosaurids likely gravitated toward the region due because its climate and location was ideal for calving, Gohar said.
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