Correspondence: Tracing the process of early whales from land to sea

Xinhua News Agency, Cairo, September 11th: Tracing the process of early whales from land to sea

Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Danni Mahmoud Fuli

"These 43 million-year-old amphibious quadruped whale fossils are a major scientific discovery in the field of paleontology and zoology, which helps us trace the process of early whales from land to ocean
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" Research on Vertebrate Paleontology at Mansoura University, Egypt Hisham Salam, the founder of the center and professor of vertebrate paleontology at the American University in Cairo, told Xinhua News Agency a few days ago

Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmin Fouad said in a statement on August 25 that Egyptian researchers found a fossil of a semi-aquatic whale that lived 43 million years ago in the "Whale Valley" of Fayoum Province.
It is a species that can walk on land, swim in water, have powerful jaw muscles, and prey on other animals for a living
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Researchers named this new whale species after the god of death "Anubis" in ancient Egyptian mythology

Salam said that this is the first time researchers have recorded a new type of amphibious whale, which represents the connection between whales that lived on land in ancient times and whales that live in the ocean today
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Anatomical characteristics show that it is completely different from any species previously known to humans, and belongs to a new genus and species in biological classification

Research center researcher Abdullah Guhar published relevant research results in the British "Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology Branch" as the first author
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He is currently working to clean up and repair the semi-aquatic whale fossils discovered by the team

Guhar said that the whale fossils discovered by the team included an incomplete skull, right mandible, part of the left mandible (one with teeth), some individual teeth, different rib fragments, as well as the fifth cervical vertebra and sixth breast.
Vertebrae
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Current research on fossils shows that this whale is 3 meters long and weighs 600 kilograms

According to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, the discovery was made in collaboration with the Egyptian "Whale Valley" paleontological site research team, the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Mansoura University
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The follow-up inspection of the fossil was carried out by researchers from Mansoura University, which was another major discovery made by the school following the discovery of the Mansourasaurus fossil in western Egypt

"Our paleontology research center has become a place that many students yearn for
.
" said Usama Ayaan, dean of the Faculty of Science at Mansoura University .

"Whale Valley" is located deep in the desert southwest of Cairo.
It is an important discovery and exhibition site of ancient cetacean fossils.
It was a vast ocean 40 million years ago
.
It was included in the World Natural Heritage List in 2005 and became the first World Natural Heritage Site in Egypt