Discovered the fossil of a whale ancestor, it had 4 legs and was probably able to both walk on land and swim.
The 43 million-year-old remains were found in Egypt and were analyzed by a research team led by the Mansoura University of Egypt who published work in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Modern whales are known to be descendants of a group of land-dwelling mammals likely very similar to deer, and fossil finds are believed to have developed the first fully aquatic whales in Asian regions some 50 million years ago. . The remains found now in Egypt, in the desert area of Fayum which in the past was covered by the sea and where a large quantity of marine fossils come from, are the first evidence of a semi-aquatic whale found in Africa.
The new individual was probably about 3 meters long, weighing 600 kilos, and its particular jaws suggest it was also an excellent predator. It belonged to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that was the protagonist of that transition that led these mammals to become fully aquatic animals. The new species was renamed Phiomicetus anubis in honor of the Egyptian deity Anubis, the jackal-headed god and protector of the world of the dead.