Egypt: The discovery of the whale "Tocitus ryanensis", one of the oldest whales in Africa
On Thursday, the American University in Egypt announced the discovery by paleontologists of the remains of a whale that lived in Egypt 41 million years ago. It is one of the oldest fossils of this type of whale in Africa and is extinct today.
The whale was given the name "Tosetus ryanensis" after the child pharaoh Tutankhamun, from "Setos", which means whale in Greek, and Wadi El Rayan in Fayoum Governorate, south of Cairo, where it was discovered.
"It is the smallest whale from the family of basilosaurus whales that has been discovered to this day, and one of the oldest fossils of this type in Africa," the American University said in a statement.
Dr. Hisham Salam, Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American University in Cairo, said in a statement, “Although this group of whale ancestors had developed fish-like characteristics, such as the transformation of the forelimbs into fins, the elongation of the vertebrae, and the growth of the caudal fin, they had hind limbs that could be seen.” Enough to call them legs, which were not used for walking at all because of their small size.
Salam is a member of the research team that found the skull, jaws, bones and vertebrae of an animal measuring 2.5 meters long and weighing 187 kilograms.
The fossil was found in a part of Egypt that used to be covered by the sea where the Wadi al-Hitan is also located and contains "priceless" fossil remains, according to UNESCO.
In August 2021, Egyptian archaeologists discovered a fossil of a new type of amphibious whale, dating back 43 million years, in the Fayoum region.
With a length of more than three meters and about 600 kilograms, Egypt presented "Phyomycetus anubis" as "the oldest and most ferocious whale in Africa."
In 2018, a team of scientists discovered the first dinosaur skeleton in Africa, dating back more than 75 million years.
Source: websites