[imagesource: Reuters]

Those bones might not look like much to the average person, but to scientists, they’re astonishing.

Phiomicetus anubis weighed an estimated 600 kilograms. Blue whales can weigh around 150 tonnes, so that’s not the impressive bit.

It lived around 43 million years ago and was able to walk on land and swim in water.

In other words, it was amphibious, reports the BBC:

The fossil… was originally discovered in Egypt’s Western Desert.

Its skull resembles that of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god of the dead after which it was named.

Image: Robert Boessenecker

The ancestors of modern whales developed from deer-like mammals that lived on land over the course of 10 million years.

Phiomicetus anubis measured around three metres in length, and possessed strong jaws which enabled it to catch prey.

The study found that the jackal-shaped head and jaws were likely developed for a “raptorial feeding style”.

The partial skeleton was found in an area of Egypt that is now a desert but was once covered by water.

#Phiomicetus location in Egypt!#Sallam_Lab pic.twitter.com/dY6kLrHYuc

— Hesham Sallam (@heshamsallam) August 25, 2021

Scientists at Mansoura University analysed the fossil, and published their findings on Wednesday:

“Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology,” the study’s lead author, Abdullah Gohar, told Reuters news agency.

Here’s Gohar, hard at work, renovating the 43-million-year-old fossil:

Image: Reuters

It’s not the first whale fossil ever found with legs, though.

In 2011, researchers in Peru discovered a fossil with four legs, hooves, and webbed feet.

I’m sensing we may not be far off a low-budget Sharknado-style horror film with man-eating whales.

Naturally, it will star Jason Statham.

[source:bbc]