Tiny ancient whale discovery in Victoria

A newly named 25-million-year-old whale from Victoria hints at a diverse, offbeat lineage that once thrived in warm Australian seas.

Tiny ancient whale Janjucetus dullardi reshapes Australia’s marine past

A 25-million-year-old fossil, Janjucetus dullardi, has been named in a new study that broadens our view of early whale diversity. Found in Jan Juc, Victoria, in 2019 by Ross Dullard and later studied by Museums Victoria, the specimen appears to be about two metres long and shows a short jaw full of teeth. Scientists describe mammalodontids as baleen whales that lacked baleen, a paradox that reveals how different feeding strategies existed early in whale history. The discovery adds Janjucetus dullardi to a growing set of small, toothy relatives that roamed warm coastal waters at a time when the oceans were much different from today.

Victoria’s late Oligocene seas yielded a surprisingly abundant record of these strange whales, with dozens of fossils attributed to mammalodontids, many unnamed. The study notes that the group occupied a niche between toothed and baleen whales, challenging simple linear ideas about whale evolution. The fossil record also suggests that the lineage originated before the oldest known fossils, possibly in isolation off southern Australia, before climate change and global cooling reshaped the seas and led to their disappearance around 22 million years ago.

The find highlights how early whale history was not a straight path toward modern baleen or toothed giants. It shows that isolation can shelter unusual lineages long enough for diversification before climate shifts rewrite marine ecosystems.

This work underlines the value of local fossil sites for telling global stories. A small bone can tilt a long-held narrative about life in the oceans and remind us that science advances on the shoulders of community effort and careful museum work.

Highlights

The coast keeps turning up clues about a world long before blue whales ruled the oceans.