25M-year-old whale species discovered in southeastern Australia

By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - A previously unknown 25-million-year-old species of whale was discovered in southeastern Australia, in the first such discovery in 20 years.

Janjucetus dullardi, a species of mammalodontid, had "very large eyes and a very short snout," as well as a "a mouth full of very pointy, very sharp teeth," according to a video posted by Museums Victoria on YouTube.

The animal is estimated to have been 2 to 2.1 meters (6.5- 6.9 feet) long.

While it can be said that Janjucetus dullardi is a baleen whale, it bears very little resemblance to modern baleen whales, considering that today's are characterized by comb-like keratin plates in their upper jaw instead of teeth, said the video.

Unlike these modern whales, Janjucetus dullardi would have had teeth, it said.

"All our phylogenetic analyses recover this taxon as sister to Janjucetus hunderi," a small whale that lived around 25 million years ago off the southeastern state of Victoria, said a study about the fossil, published Tuesday in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

It added: Janjucetus dullardi is "distinguished from Janjucetus hunderi by seven characters."

Janjucetus dullardi, was discovered near Jan Juc along Victoria's Surf Coast in 2019, by local resident Ross Dullard, which it was named after.