Picture the warm, shallow seas off ancient Australia some 26 million years ago. Among the schools of fish, a small but formidable predator lurks. Its huge eyes are scanning for movement, its mouth bristling with razor-sharp teeth.
This was Janjucetus dullardi, a compact hunter about the size of a dolphin, now known from a remarkably well-preserved fossil unearthed along Victoria’s Surf Coast.
Scientists at Museums Victoria’s Research Institute have officially described the new species in a study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The find offers rare insight into the early evolution of baleen whales, the filter-feeding giants that now glide peacefully through our oceans.
The story began in June 2019, when local resident Ross Dullard spotted a curious fragment on the beach near Jan Juc, a popular surf hotspot alongside Australia’s southeastern coast. The fossil turned out to be a partial skull with ear bones and ...
