Long before the Ancient Egyptians walked the Earth and the great pyramids were constructed, something else inhabited what is now Egypt. Some 41 million years ago, Egypt's desert was covered by an ancient sea and was once home to the now-extinct whale species, Tutcetus rayanensis.
According to a recent study published in Communications Biology, the newly discovered T. rayanensis is the smallest basilosaurid whale species known to date, and one of the oldest specimens of the whale family found in Africa.
