News Release

Ancient whale genus newly-described from Morocco lived around 40 million years ago and likely had manatee-like swimming and feeding habits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Cranium and thorax of Antaecetus aithai, (specimen FSAC Bouj-200).

image: The cranium is shown in red and the teeth (labeled I1 through M2) are shown in brown. Vertebrae are shown in blue, the left ribs in orange, and the right ribs in yellow. Thoracics and ribs are numbered from T2 through T11 and R2 through R11 on the assumption that the skeleton had 13 thoracics and 13 pairs of ribs. Rib numbers correspond to those of matching vertebrae. (Abbreviations: Bo, basioccipital; c, mandibular condyle; Exo, exoccipital; glf, glenoid fossa; Ju, jugal; Max, maxilla; Pal, palatine; Pmx, premaxilla; pps, petrosal and surrounding pterygoid sinus; Pty, pterygoid; sop, supraorbital process of frontal; Sq, squamosal; Tym, tympanic.) view more 

Credit: Gingerich et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ancient whale genus newly-described from Morocco lived around 40 million years ago and likely had manatee-like swimming and feeding habits

###

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276110

Article Title: Skull and partial skeleton of a new pachycetine genus (Cetacea, Basilosauridae) from the Aridal Formation, Bartonian middle Eocene, of southwestern Morocco

Author Countries: USA, Morocco

Funding: S.Z. 9202-12 National Geographic Society https://www.nationalgeographic.org/funding-opportunities/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. S.Z. 9765-15 National Geographic Society https://www.nationalgeographic.org/funding-opportunities/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.