Four legged whale, with eating style like raptors

A team lead by Egyptian scientists discovered a 43 million-year-old fossil of a now-extinct amphibious four-legged whale in Egypt’s the Sahara Desert.

Yes, you read that correctly: a whale with legs.

According to the study’s authors, this creature had “unique skull characteristics” and its “mandible suggests a capacity for more effective oral mechanical processing.”

These wandering whales, in other words, possessed a “strong raptorial eating style.”

Abdullah Gohar, a scientist, told the media, “We discovered how fierce and deadly its powerful jaws are capable of tearing a wide range of prey … this whale was a god of death to most of the animals that lived in its area.”

The scientists named the new whale Phiomicetus Anubis, after Anubis, the canine-headed Egyptian god linked with mummification and the afterlife. It was most likely a top predator at the time, much like a killer whale is today.

Whales were once “herbivorous, deer-like terrestrial creatures,” according to the scientists. Whales evolved into predatory creatures in the water during a period of around 10 million years. The discovery of the four-legged creature is a step in that evolutionary process.

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