Maiacetus inuus. Illustration: John Klausmeyer
A pregnant cetacean ancestor laid down her bones 47.5 million years ago, and scientists in Pakistan picked them up earlier this decade. The pair’s bones were initially mistaken for an adult whale with a smaller companion, but paleontologists later realized they were handling a mother and her fetus of an extinct group of whale ancestors, the Anchaeoceti. The real kicker, though, was that the fetus was ready to greet the wide world head first––ala land mammals and distinctly unlike modern whales. And while they gave birth and likely rested on shore, Maiacetus inuus probably did everything else in the water, similar to modern crocodiles. The new find, detailed in a Public Library of Science paper, is yet another step in the fossilized path between ancient ancestors and their modern brethren.
(By the way, Maiacetus is Latin for “mother whale.” Clever scientists.)
