New Species Of Miniature Whale, Named After Ancient Egypt King, Discovered

Scientists have identified a new species of an ancient miniature whale that lived around 41 million years ago. The miniature whale is named the Tutcetus rayanensis after the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and is the smallest ancient marine mammal to ever exist, said an ABC News report. It further said that the fossilised remained of the animal were found in 2012 embedded in limestone rock in the Fayum Depression in Egypt, about 113 kilometres southwest of the country's capital Cairo.

A study about the discovery has been published in Communications Biology.

The fossil of the whale include a skull, jaw, teeth and vertebrae fragments, said researchers.

"The Tutcetus is the grandfather for all modern dolphin and whale species," Hesham Sallam, lead author and paleontologist at Mansoura University and the American University in Cairo, told ABC News.

The mammal was about 8 feet in length and weighed 187 kg, according to the study.

Explaining why the fish was so small in size, Abdullah Gohar, a paleontology PhD student at Mansoura University, said the Tutcetus may have evolved in response to a warming event that occurred about 42 million years ago. Its skull is about five times smaller than other basilosaurids, the co-author further said.

The study revealed that the whale must have been near adulthood, since the bones within its skull and vertebrae had fused together and its permanent teeth were at an advanced stage of emergence.

The fossil was assigned to the basilosaurids based on the presence of multiple accessory cusps on the cheek teeth and well-developed pterygoid sinuses around the auditory region, the researchers said in the study.