Did whales originate in Egyptian waters?
A group of Egyptian scientists discovered a 43 million-year-old fossil in "Whale Valley" — now in the Western Desert.
CAIRO — An Egyptian team of scientists from Mansoura University made a new discovery of a previously unknown species of an amphibian whale in Egyptian waters that lived 43 million years ago.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page Aug. 25, the Egyptian Cabinet praised the discovery as a breakthrough for Arab paleontologists, since it is the first time in history that an Arab-Egyptian team documents a new species of whales.
The study was authored by Hesham Sellam, a prominent vertebrate paleontologist, professor at the American University in Cairo and founder of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Center. Mohamed Sameh, who found the whale fossil in 2008, co-authored the paper on the discovery that was published Aug. 25 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
In 2008, a research team at the Egyptian Ministry of Environment found the whale's fossilized remains in Wadi al-Hitan in the Fayoum region, southwest of the capital Cairo. The area contains invaluable fossil remains of extinct whales.
