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An old four-legged whale crossed the ground on wedged toes and swam in the sea like an otter.
The newly discovered species was discovered in 2011 in a fossilized bone cache at Playa Media Luna, an arid coastal region of Peru. The jaws and teeth considered it an ancient cetacean, a member of the family of whales. And other bones followed.
"We were really surprised to find this type of whale in these layers, but the best surprise was its degree of completeness," said Olivier Lambert, paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.
The characteristics of the jaw, teeth and spine, described on April 4 in Current biology, does not correspond to anything else in the fossil record, making the skeleton a new species, nicknamed Peregocetus pacificus (meaning "the whale traveler who has reached the Pacific Ocean"). At 42.6 million years old, it is the oldest whale skeleton in the New World, although some fossilized whale teeth in North America are even older.
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Big feet possibly webbed and long toes would have allowed P. pacificus paddle or swim in freestyle. And like otters and modern beavers, the vertebrae of this whale suggest that its tail also served as a paddle. With tiny hooves and strong legs and hips, the animal could walk on land. But "he was really a better swimmer than the walker," says Lambert.
Whales started on land and gradually adapted to the aquatic lifestyle. The first amphibious whales appeared more than 50 million years ago near India and Pakistan. The new species shares similar characteristics with Maiacetus and rodhocetus, first two whales of this region. P. pacificusAge supports the idea that whales migrated across the South Atlantic and around South America to the Pacific Ocean during their first 10 million years
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