Roderick Duncan / Munroums victoria
Prehistoric whale Janjucetus Dullardi with his child, artistic concept
From the southeastern banks of Australia, a fossil emerged that revealed a new species of prehistoric branches, never seen before.
About 26 million years ago, a gender whale mammalodontidaeof which the bangs are part of the waters, swam in the waters around the southern continent, using their large eyes and sharp teeth as blades to master their small ocean territory.
But there is one unexpected detail In this story: unlike the whales that today reign in the seas-among which are some of the world that the world has already known-the newly discovered Janjucetus dullardi It was tiny, with a size similar to that of a human being or a prehistoric penguin.
In fact, it is only one of a great diversity of small whales that inhabited the waters of Australia, before the whales began to dramatically increase in size, about 5.3 million years ago.
The discovery was presented in a published last week in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
“It’s basically A small whale with large eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth, suitable for cutting, ”explains the paleontologist Ruadh DuncanMuseums Victoria Research Institute and Monash University in Australia, Ao.
“Imagine a version of whale of shark shaped beards – small and apparently harmless, but far from being”Adds the investigator.
The discovered fossil It’s a rare find: A partial skull, including ear bones and teeth. This material allowed Duncan and its team to classify the species safely as belonging to mammalodontidae -An extinct genre of old branches.
A J. Dullards It’s just the room mammalodontidae discovered worldwide, and the third identified in the fossil formation of Jan Juc in Victoria, Australia. In addition, their fossil remains are the first to preserve, in detail, both dentition and the structure of the inner ear.
Researchers believe that fossilized bones belonged to a whale Young, which would be about 2 meters in length. In adult, it could have grown a little more, but it would never reach the dimensions of modern whales: mammalodontidae reached a maximum of 4 meters.
These precious bones of the ear, underline scientists, offer fundamental clues about how J. Dullards He realized and sailed in his environment.
The whales evolved dramatically over the millions of years who followed the time when the J. Dullards lived.
For example, although the mammalodontidae are technically classified as bearded whales, had teeth instead of bearded structures that modern whales use for filtration feed – suggesting that the group will have diverged from the main line that gave rise to current beard whales.
Structures such as the inner ear and the teeth of the J. Dullards They can help scientists identify other evolutionary differences and changes. In turn, this may contribute to explain why mammalodontidae If they extinguished, while other whales prospered.
“This fossil opens a window to understand how old whales grew and changed, and how evolution shaped their bodies as they adapted to marine life,” says the paleontologist Erich Fitzgeralddo Museums Victoria Research Institute e da Monash University.
“This region was, in times, a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, EEWe just start to unravel your stories”.
