Scientists unearth ‘cute' but fearsome ancient whale
Museums Victoria pieced together the species from an unusually well-preserved skull fossil found on Victoria's Surf Coast in 2019.
Scientists discovered a 'fast, sharp-toothed predator' that would have been about the size of a dolphin.
'It's essentially a little whale with big eyes and a mouth full of sharp, slicing teeth,' said researcher Ruairidh Duncan.
'Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale—small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless.'
The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales known as the mammalodontids, distant smaller relatives of today's filter-feeding whales.
It is the fourth mammalodontid species ever discovered, Museums Victoria said.
'This fossil opens a window into how ancient whales grew and changed, and how evolution shaped their bodies as they adapted to life in the sea,' said palaeontologist Erich Fitzgerald, who co-authored the study.
Victoria's Surf Coast lies on the Jan Juc Formation—a geological feature dating to the Oligocene epoch between 23 and 30 million years ago.
A string of rare fossils have been unearthed along the scenic stretch of beach, a renowned site for the study of early whale evolution.
'This region was once a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, and we're only just beginning to uncover their stories,' said Fitzgerald.
'We're entering a new phase of discovery.
'This region is rewriting the story of how whales came to rule the oceans, with some surprising plot twists.'
The species was named Janjucetus dullardi, a nod to local Ross Dullard who stumbled across the skull while strolling the beach in 2019.
It was described in the peer-reviewed Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. — AFP
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