{"id":13843,"date":"2025-08-13T11:37:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T11:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/new-species-of-deceptively-cute-but-fearsome-ancient-whale-named-after-local-who-found-its-skull-on-beach\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T11:37:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T11:37:26","slug":"new-species-of-deceptively-cute-but-fearsome-ancient-whale-named-after-local-who-found-its-skull-on-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/new-species-of-deceptively-cute-but-fearsome-ancient-whale-named-after-local-who-found-its-skull-on-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"New species of “deceptively cute” but fearsome ancient whale named after local who found its skull on beach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australian scientists have discovered a razor-toothed whale that prowled the seas 26 million years ago, saying Wednesday the species was “deceptively cute” but a fearsome predator.<\/p>\n

Museums Victoria<\/a> pieced together the species from an unusually well-preserved skull fossil found on Victoria’s Surf Coast in 2019.<\/p>\n

In a study published Tuesday<\/a>, scientists say they discovered a “fast, sharp-toothed predator” that would have been about the size of a dolphin.<\/p>\n

“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 \u2014 small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless.”<\/p>\n

Museums Victoria released a video<\/a> showing Duncan discuss the discovery and how researchers were able to identify the species.<\/p>\n

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Janjucetus dullardi\u00a0calf and mother swimming through the shallow seas off Victoria, 25 million years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Art by Ruairidh Duncan\/Museums Victoria<\/p>\n

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The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales known as the mammalodontids, distant smaller relatives of today’s filter-feeding whales.<\/p>\n

It is the fourth mammalodontid species ever discovered, Museums Victoria said. And it is the third to be identified in Victoria following\u00a0discoveries in 2006 and 1939<\/a>, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.<\/p>\n

“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 palaeontologist Erich Fitzgerald, who co-authored the study.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s Surf Coast lies on the Jan Juc Formation \u2014 a geological feature dating to the Oligocene epoch between 23 and 30 million years ago.<\/p>\n

A string of rare fossils have been unearthed along the scenic stretch of beach, a renowned site for the study of early whale evolution.<\/p>\n

“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. “We’re entering a new phase of discovery.<\/p>\n

“This region is rewriting the story of how whales came to rule the oceans, with some surprising plot twists.”<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald told the ABC<\/a> the whale was unique to Australia.<\/p>\n

“If they were alive today, they would be as iconically Australian as a kangaroo,” he said.<\/p>\n

The species was named Janjucetus dullardi, a nod to local Ross Dullard who stumbled across the skull while strolling the beach in 2019.<\/p>\n

It was described in the peer-reviewed Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The discovery comes two years after scientists announced they discovered an ancient whale in Peru that could be the heaviest animal ever<\/a><\/span> to exist.<\/p>\n

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