New discovery of old whales
Scientists at a university in New Zealand say that they have uncovered five new species of ancient whale that will help fill in some gaps in our knowledge of where the whales of today come from.
A team at Otago University have been studying new fossil specimens of whales that may have grown up to 6m in length, and probably looked like a mixture between today’s toothless baleen whales and a more intimidating toothed, primitive ancestor.
The fossil specimens have enabled the researchers to piece together how the ancient species may have looked and how they then changed into the whales we know and see today.
