{"id":108717,"date":"2025-08-31T16:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size"},"modified":"2025-08-31T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:50:41","slug":"rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size","title":{"rendered":"Rare Ancient Whale Named After King Tut for Size"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>The ancient whale was small, measuring about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length and weighing around 412 pounds (167 kilograms).<\/p>\n

Scientists have discovered a rare species of whale from a 41-million-year-old fossil they unearthed in Egypt, one potentially considered the smallest to ever swim throughout our globe\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n

The fossil, since named Tutcetus rayanensis (the King Tut whale), is the smallest cetacean ever found, and belongs to the family Basilosauridae, an early group of whales that existed from the middle Eocene to the late Oligocene Epoch.<\/p>\n

The fossil was initially found five years ago in the Fayum Depression\u2014or Fayoum Oasis, one of several mega-deserts located in the Western Desert of Egypt.<\/p>\n

Scientists chose to name the whale after the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutanhamun on account of its young age. Based on the small whale\u2019s fossils, which included its skull, jaw, teeth and fragments of the vertebrae, officials discovered the creature was just reaching adulthood when it had died, similar to King Tut, who was believed to be aged 18 or 19 when he died.<\/b><\/p>\n

“We were lucky to have a complete set of T. rayanensis’ lower teeth and discovered that it was almost-mature but still subadult,” said Abdullah Gohar, a study co-author from the Mansoura University in Egypt. “Its teeth had very smooth enamel, which is an indication of very soft feeding mainly on fish, squids, octopus and other not-fast-moving prey.”<\/p>\n

“T. rayanensis lived fast and died fast,” Gohar added. “This could also be an adaptation to climate change.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers believe the whale\u2019s miniature size and short life cycle could have been its body\u2019s response to the Lutetian Thermal Maximum; a global warming event that happened about 42 million years ago. Animals tend to develop into smaller sizes in warmer climates, as food sources become scarce.<\/p>\n

[Basilosaurids] developed fish-like characteristics, such as a streamlined body, a strong tail, flippers and a tail fin, and had the last hind limbs visible enough to be recognized as \u2018legs,\u2019 which were not used for walking but possibly for mating,\u201d Hesham Sallam, a team leader from the American University in Cairo (AUC), said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sallam added that the discovery was \u201cremarkable\u201d and \u201cdocuments one of the first phases of the transition to a fully aquatic lifestyle\u201d.<\/p>\n

The study’s findings were published on Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. The ancient whale was small, measuring about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length and weighing around 412 pounds (167 kilograms). Scientists have discovered a rare species of whale from a 41-million-year-old fossil they unearthed in Egypt, one potentially considered the smallest to ever swim throughout our globe\u2019s oceans. The fossil, since named […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":108716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31],"tags":[758],"class_list":["post-108717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nRare Ancient Whale Named After King Tut for Size - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ancient whale was small, measuring about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length and weighing around 412 pounds (167 kilograms ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rare Ancient Whale Named After King Tut for Size\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ancient whale was small, measuring about 8 feet (2.5 meters) in length and weighing around 412 pounds (167 kilograms ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-31T16:30:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-31T16:50:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/08\/sm_1756646089.377808.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rare Ancient Whale Named After King Tut for Size\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-31T16:30:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-31T16:50:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\"},\"wordCount\":406,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/08\/sm_1756646089.377808.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rare-ancient-whale-named-after-king-tut-for-size\",\"name\":\"Rare Ancient Whale Named After King Tut for Size - 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