{"id":64858,"date":"2025-08-13T10:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T10:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64858\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T10:42:08","slug":"fossil-found-on-victorian-beach-leads-to-discovery-of-deceptively-cute-whale-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64858\/","title":{"rendered":"Fossil found on Victorian beach leads to discovery of &#8216;deceptively cute&#8217; whale species"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 26-million-year-old fossil found by a local on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/victoria\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Victoria&#039;s\">Victoria&#8217;s<\/a> surf coast has led to the finding of a new species of ancient whale.<\/p>\n<p>Ross Dullard found a partial skull with ear bones and teeth while walking along the beach near Jan Juc in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>He donated it to Museums Victoria Research Institute, where it was studied by scientists and found to be a new species, which they named Janjucetus dullardi in Dullard&#8217;s honour.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/da6003c3-8306-4a93-b6d9-e2bdf662d4ec.png\"   alt=\"The juvenile 'baby whale' species belonged to a group of early whales that lived around 30 to 23 million years ago.\"\/>The juvenile &#8216;baby whale&#8217; species belonged to a group of early whales that lived around 30 to 23 million years ago. (Nine)<\/p>\n<p>The discovery provides new insights into the early evolution of baleen whales.<\/p>\n<p>The juvenile &#8216;baby whale&#8217; species belonged to a group of early whales that lived around 30 to 23 million years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Much smaller than modern whales, researchers say Janjucetus dullardi were predators with large forward-facing eyes, razor sharp teeth and a body about the size of a dolphin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale \u2013 small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless,&#8221; Museums Victoria Research Institute PhD student Ruairidh Duncan said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ross&#8217; discovery has unlocked an entire chapter of whale evolution we&#8217;ve never seen before,&#8221; Museums Victoria Research Institute senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology Dr Erich Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/2bfbf33e-4fdb-4308-8e7f-89c6d1aa0121.png\"   alt=\"Local Ross Dullard discovered the fossils while walking on a beach on Victoria's surf coast in 2019.\"\/>Local Ross Dullard discovered the fossils while walking on a beach on Victoria&#8217;s surf coast in 2019. (Nine)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a reminder that world-changing fossils can be found in your own backyard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The newfound species is only the found known mammalodontid species in the world, three of which were found in Victoria.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This region was once a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, and we&#8217;re only just beginning to uncover their stories,&#8221; Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n<p>The research team hopes Victoria&#8217;s coastline can bring more fossil discoveries in coming years.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 26-million-year-old fossil found by a local on Victoria&#8217;s surf coast has led to the finding of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-64858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}