Tutcetus
my first scientific reconstruction
I’m glad to work with @heshamsallam @Gohar_A_S, #Tutcetus, #SallamLab #MUVP” pic.twitter.com/4mnpncjyHd— EgyPaleo (@AhmadMorsi14) August 10, 2023
A few weeks ago, scientists described an example of what may have been history’s largest whale, and a new discovery finds itself on the opposite end of the spectrum. Researchers in Egypt found a diminutive whale skeleton that is the smallest member of a group of creatures that represent a key step in the whale’s evolution from land-dwelling to aquatic animal.
In 2012, researchers discovered the whale’s skeleton in a piece of limestone in Wadi el-Hitan, also called Whale Valley, a site famous for its number, concentration and quality of ancient whale fossils. At first they found a single exposed tooth in a block of limestone from the Eocene period, but soon discovered more.
“When we were trying to repair it and clean up all of the sediment above the fossils, we discovered it is not something we usually see from that time period,” Prof Hesham Sallam, founder of the Mansoura University vertebrate paleontology center (MUVP), told The Guardian.
At the reception of #Tutcetus, the king of the ancient seas, from left, @Gohar_A_S holds the symbolic crook and flail of King Tutankhamun, Mohamed Antar holds the famed Tutankhamun mask, and I wear his Scarab Bracelet and Necklace.@SanaaEgypt #SallamLab pic.twitter.com/VfJNNsqvW2
— Hesham Sallam (@heshamsallam) August 10, 2023
The creature, named Tutcetus Rayanensis, after the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, was a basilosaurid – a group thought to be the among the first whales to live solely in the water. Tutcetus is estimated to have weighed around 400 pounds, and been eight feet long. The creature is not only the smallest member of the basilosauridae, but also one of the oldest records of the family to be found in Africa.
Sallam told ABC News that Tutcetus’ anatomical features were similar to modern dolphins. Also like dolphins, researchers believe it fed on small squids and maybe crustaceans, based on analysis of its teeth. It was a species with a short lifespan, compared to other basilosaurids, and the specimen found Wadi el-Hitan was close to adulthood.
As the paper describing Tutcetus states, “This intriguing specimen markedly expands the size range of the basilosaurids and demonstrates that whales achieved considerable disparity during the middle Eocene.”
“Whales’ evolution from land-dwelling animals to beautiful marine creatures embodies the marvelous adventurous journey of life,” said Professor Sallam to Sci News. “Tutcetus rayanensis is a remarkable discovery that documents one of the first phases of the transition to a fully aquatic lifestyle that took place in that journey.”
