国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / Asia-Pacific

Australia finds 'cute' ancient whale with razor-sharp teeth

Updated: 2025-08-14 09:51
Share
Share - WeChat
Museums Victoria researcher Ruairidh Duncan (left) and paleontologist Erich Fitzgerald with the partial fossil skull and teeth of the whale in Melbourne. MUSEUMS VICTORIA VIA AFP

SYDNEY — Australian scientists have discovered a razor-toothed whale that prowled the seas 26 million years ago, saying on Wednesday that the species was "deceptively cute" but a fearsome predator.

Museums Victoria pieced together the species from an unusually well-preserved skull fossil found on Victoria's Surf Coast in 2019.

Scientists discovered a "fast, sharp-toothed predator" that would have been about the size of a dolphin.

"It's essentially a little whale with big eyes and a mouth full of sharp, slicing teeth," said researcher Ruairidh Duncan.

"Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale — small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless."

Baleen whales are characterized by having baleen plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth.

The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales known as the mammalodontids — distant, smaller relatives of today's filter-feeding whales.

It is the fourth mammalodontid species ever discovered, Museums Victoria said.

"This fossil opens a window into how ancient whales grew and changed, and how evolution shaped their bodies as they adapted to life in the sea," said paleontologist Erich Fitzgerald, who co-authored the study.

Victoria's Surf Coast lies on the Jan Juc Formation — a geological feature dating to the Oligocene epoch between 23 and 30 million years ago.

A string of rare fossils have been unearthed along the scenic stretch of beach, a renowned site for the study of early whale evolution.

"This region was once a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, and we're only just beginning to uncover their stories," said Fitzgerald.

The species was named Janjucetus dullardi, a nod to local Ross Dullard who stumbled across the skull while strolling on the beach in 2019.

Agencies Via Xinhua

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
柳江县| 洪江市| 沙坪坝区| 香河县| 清苑县| 金塔县| 元谋县| 大埔县| 无锡市| 大化| 凤冈县| 襄城县| 嘉定区| 布尔津县| 四川省| 淳安县| 正宁县| 淮南市| 乐都县| 烟台市| 科尔| 汕尾市| 藁城市| 麻城市| 乐都县| 嵊泗县| 九龙县| 中阳县| 南乐县| 湾仔区| 普陀区| 老河口市| 西宁市| 锡林郭勒盟| 论坛| 广丰县| 梓潼县| 富蕴县| 河津市| 万安县| 紫金县|