Egypt discovers one of Africa's oldest extinct whales

This whale was named “Tutcetus Rayanens”, a term derived from the name of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, from “cetus”, which means whale in Greek, and from Wadi al-Rayan, the Fayum region, south of Cairo, where it was found .

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.

Its discovery represents a “crucial step in the evolution of whales from the terrestrial to the marine environment,” explained Hicham Salam, a member of the research team that found a skull, jaws, bones and a vertebra of an animal measuring 2,5 meters long and 187kg.

During this phase, whales “developed fish-like features, such as a streamlined body, a strong tail, and fins. Furthermore, they show the last traces of limbs visible enough to be called legs, which they probably used for reproduction and not for walking,” the statement detailed.

The fossil was found in a part of Egypt that was covered by the sea in the past, where the Valley of the Whales is also located, where remains of “extremely valuable” fossils can be found, according to UNESCO.

In August 2021, Egyptian archaeologists had already discovered the fossil of a new species of amphibious whale that is 43 million years old in the Fayum region.

With its tail measuring more than three meters long and weighing around 600 kilograms, “Fioumicetus anubis” was presented by the Egyptian government as “the fiercest and oldest whale in Africa”.

In 2018, a team of scientists discovered the first dinosaur skeleton in Africa, dating back to more than 75 million years ago.

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