Egypt Names 43 Million-Years-Old fossil Walking Whales – Marine Marvels

Mamta Panda
Mamta Panda
Walking Whales

Can you imagine a whale with LEGS or Walking Whales?  Can you feel your nightmares getting even more awful? Yes, today we are standing in an evolved era when we can imagine humans with two legs animals with four legs, and whales without any legs- THE MARINE MARVELS.  But eminent scientists of Egypt with their study have dug up the roots to 43 million years ago fossil. The fossil is now an extinct amphibious four-legged whale in the Sahara Desert of Egypt.

Features of the Fossil – Walking Whales

According to the researchers, this unique creature had a wide mandible having enough capacity for efficient oral mechanical physiology. It also had a unique feature of its skull. It bears an absolute resemblance to the skull of the jackal-headed Anubis, providing a link to the angel of Death as per the researcher’s observation.

The jaws were fierce with full power jaw which was quite enough to tear the prey apart. No wonder this creature must have been the king of the ocean. Hence the God of death to most of the living creatures of that time residing in that niche. The nomenclature of the new whale was done after the canine-headed Egyptian god Anubis who was related to the mummification and afterlife. Hence the new whale had the scientific name Phiomicetus Anubis. Undoubtedly as blue whale poses a top killer predator in today’s era, it is likely to believe that this new creature must have been at the top of the tropic level in terms of talking about predators. The new creature was expected to be of a 10-foot length which accounts for 3 meters. One won’t be wrong at quoting it a beast.

Eminent Brains Behind The Study Walking Whales

The authors behind this study include Abdullah Gohar, Hesham Sallam, and Mohammed Sameh. They briefed about the nascent holotype fossil at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology center. Mr. Gohar who is a graduate student at the university said that it was one of the most successful predators and active of all time. The fossil study was initiated in the lab of Hesham Sallam who is also the founder of Mansoura University. He is the senior author of the study. The research-based study was published on Wednesday 25th August online in the popular journal Proceedings of Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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The study also showed that P.anubis was not the sole fossil whale from the mid-Eocene of Egypt continent. The early aquatic whale Rayanistes after was also discovered in the same area. Hence the finding suggests that both the ancient whales belonged to the same time span and location but certainly occupied varied niches. There is also a possibility of the giant P.anubis must have given a chase to R.afer calves making Anubis the god of all creatures.

Scientists were astonished by the fact of what the world believed whales to be herbivore animals more like a deer. Over the time of 10 million years, there are enormous variations that account for their mutation to a carnivore in the water bodies. The most surprising fact is that the fossil had four legs denoting that the whale was also a terrestrial species. This brings up back to our bookish texts giving an efficient example of evolution. This suggests that the semiaquatic creature not only swam but also walked its way.

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