The Victoria Museums of Melbourne have reconstructed the species from an exceptionally well-preserved skull fossil, found in 2019 in the County Surf Coast, southwest of the city.
Scientists discovered a “fast and sharp teeth” predator “which would have been roughly the size of a dolphin. “It is essentially a small whale with large eyes and a mouth full of sharp and sharp teeth,” said researcher Ruaidh Duncan.
“Imagine a version resembling a shark of a bladder whale: small and deceptively cute, but certainly not harmless. »»
The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales, distant and smaller parents from current filter whales. This is the fourth species of this type of whale never discovered, according to Victoria museums.
“This fossil gives us an overview of how old whales have grown and evolved, and how the evolution has shaped their bodies as they adapted to marine life,” said paleontologist Erich Fitzgerald, co -author of the study, published in the scientific journal of Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
