Scientists have identified a up-to-date species of an historic whale with cartoon -scored eyes, which, they claim, would make him look like Pokémon.
According to Erich Fitzgerald, a senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Australian Victoria Research Institute Museum, there is a precursor of today’s contemporary whale species, it was “deceptive charming” Toronto Sun.
“It could look for the whole world like a strange kind of mash between a whale, seal and Pokémon,” said Fitzgerald before he explained, “but they were very their own.”
While the species, officially called Janjucetus Dullardi, could look like something that can be jumping out of Pokéball, in fact it would be something that you would probably like to stay.
It is estimated that it turns out that as a wild predator with a super effective bite it turns out more or less the size of a single bed, even though it is only a juvenile. Despite this, a significant part of the full appearance of the species remains a mystery, because so far only a partial skull and teeth have been found.
“Perhaps they had small leg nubbins, simply protruding as stumps from the body wall,” Fitzgerald continued. Cute!
Janjucetus Dullardi was placed as a member of the occasional group of historic whales of Ssacodontids, which existed 34-23 million years ago, which later evolved in humbins and today’s whales. Or in terms of Pokémon, it would definitely be typical.
The species was named after the amateur fossil hunter and high school director Ross Dullard, who contacted Victoria museums after discovering the skull on the local beach. Confirmation that it really belonged to the previous species, since then it took six years of research-significantly longer than just registration of it on Pokédex.
However, this week finally brought this confirmation – something that says that Dullard gave him “the largest 24 hours in my life” and “high Fridays coming to the left, right and center”, when the next day he was welcomed at the High School campus.
“It took my concentration for six years,” said Dullard. “I had sleepless nights. I dreamed of this whale.”
How about bringing him back to life, Helix Fossil Style?
Tom Phillips is the editor of Ign. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on BlueSky @tomphillipseg.bsky.Social
