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  • 1 year ago
A school teacher has found what's now been confirmed as a fossil from a 26-million-year-old marine killing machine. The previously undocumented type of ancient whale was found near Jan Juc on Victoria’s Surf Coast.

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00:00Six years ago, on an early morning beach walk, this school principal made quite a discovery.
00:07So poking it a little bit, this tooth popped out.
00:10And to me it looked like it was going to be like a canine from a dog,
00:14but dogs didn't exist 25 million years ago, so I knew it was something a little bit special.
00:18It turned out to be part of a skull with ear bones and teeth of a previously unknown whale species.
00:24It's been named Jangicetus dullidae after the elated fossil enthusiast.
00:29Well, for 2,224 days I've been waiting for this moment.
00:33And look, I've had sleepless nights I've dreamt about.
00:36I've discussed it with every person that I've ever met.
00:39This ancient species was about the size of a dolphin with sharp teeth and big eyes.
00:44Tiny cousins of today's blue whales, they only show up in the fossil record for 5 to 10 million years.
00:51The discovery of a third species of these ancient, tiny, toothed, terrorising baleen whales,
00:58tells us that there was actually quite a diversity of them.
01:02Not just one species that may be visited every now and then,
01:06but really a cornucopia of these weird little whales.
01:10This isn't the first time that Jangic has provided a glimpse into our prehistoric past.
01:15In 2006, Eric Fitzgerald, as a PhD student, restored the skull of what's thought to be a type of baleen whale discovered nearby.
01:24The real question now is what else lies beneath the rock?
01:27This is just a punt to show up beneath the rock.
01:34What else lies beneath the rock?
01:3618th Street Ridge
01:40investigating the
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