{"id":69468,"date":"2025-08-14T16:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69468\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T16:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:53:06","slug":"shark-like-prehistoric-whale-with-razor-sharp-teeth-discovered-off-australia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69468\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark-like prehistoric whale with razor-sharp teeth discovered off Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fossils<\/a> unearthed along Victoria<\/a>\u2019s Surf Coast have led to the discovery of an ancient whale<\/a> species with special adaptations for hunting, including large eyes and sharp teeth<\/a>, shedding light on early marine mammal evolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The species has been named Janjucetus dullardi after Victoria local<\/a> resident Ross Dullard, who found the ancient whale\u2019s fossil fragments in 2019.<\/p>\n

Janjucetus dullardi is one of their earliest cousins of modern whales<\/a> and roamed the seas around 26 million years ago, say researchers from Museums Victoria Research Institute.<\/p>\n

Unlike the modern gentle giants, Janjucetus dullardi was a fast, sharp-toothed predator with a compact body about the size of a dolphin<\/a> built for hunting, according to a new study published in the journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essentially a little whale with big eyes and a mouth full of sharp, slicing teeth … Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale \u2013 small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless,\u201d said Ruairidh Duncan, lead author of the study,<\/p>\n

The prehistoric whale had a short snout, large forward-facing eyes about the size of tennis balls and sharp slicing teeth, researchers say.<\/p>\n

\"Janjucetus<\/p>\n

Janjucetus dullardi calf and mother (Art by Ruairidh Duncan\/Museums Victoria)<\/p>\n

The early whale ancestor would have been a compact, yet fearsome sight in the warm, shallow seas of ancient Victoria, scientists noted.<\/p>\n

The findings offer insight into the early evolution of baleen whales \u2013 the filter-feeding giant mammals cruising through modern oceans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also sheds more light on the prehistoric region, now in modern-day Australia<\/a>, which scientists say was \u201conce a cradle\u201d for some of the most unusual whales in history.<\/p>\n

Researchers made the new species discovery based on a partial skull fossil with attached ear bone found in June 2019 by Victoria resident Mr Dullard while walking along the beach.<\/p>\n

After recognising its scientific importance, the Victoria resident donated the fossil to Museums Victoria, where researchers carefully studied it in detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of public discovery and its reporting to the museum is vital…Ross\u2019 discovery has unlocked an entire chapter of whale evolution we\u2019ve never seen before. It\u2019s a reminder that world-changing fossils can be found in your own backyard,\u201d said study co-author Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator at Museums Victoria Research Institute.<\/p>\n

Scientists found that the fragments belonged to a juvenile specimen just over two metres long.<\/p>\n

They concluded that it belonged to a group of early whales known as mammalodontids that lived around 30 to 23 million years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Partial<\/p>\n

Partial skull and teeth of Janjucetus dullardi (Tom Breakwell\/Museums Victoria.)<\/p>\n

The latest find marks the third known mammalodontid species from Victoria, and only the fourth found worldwide.<\/p>\n

It is also the first of its kind to preserve teeth and inner ear structures in detail, revealing how early whales fed, heard, moved and behaved in the water.<\/p>\n

Using advanced CT scans of the ear bones, researchers hope to further understand how the early species sensed its environment for hunting and navigating the oceans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d Dr Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re entering a new phase of discovery. This region is rewriting the story of how whales came to rule the oceans, with some surprising plot twists!\u201d he added,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fossils unearthed along Victoria\u2019s Surf Coast have led to the discovery of an ancient whale species with special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[43669,49,48,43673,43671,43672,10571,43670,66,27781,323],"class_list":["post-69468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-baleen-whale","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fossil-fragments","tag-museums-victoria","tag-prehistoric-whale","tag-researchers","tag-ross-dullard","tag-science","tag-teeth","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}