Egyptian paleontologists standing before holotype fossils of their discovery of a new species of extinct basilosaurid whale, Tutcetus rayanensis, that inhabited the ancient sea covering present-day Egypt around 41 million years ago, at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Centre. PHOTO | AFP
Palaeontologists in Egypt have unearthed an extinct species of whale that lived 41 million years ago when whale ancestors were just completing their move from land to sea.
The team has dubbed the species Tutcetus rayanensis after the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun and the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area in Egypt's Fayoum Oasis where the type specimen was found.
