A cornucopia of tiny, bizarre whales used to live in Australian waters – here’s one of them

By Erich Fitzgerald, Senior Curator, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Ruairidh Duncan, PhD Candidate, Palaeontology, Monash University

Australia is home to a unique bunch of native land mammals, such as koalas, wombats and wallabies. These furballs evolved in isolation on this island continent and have become Australian symbols.

But between 27 and 23 million years ago, the coastal seas of Australia were also home to sea mammals found almost nowhere else: whales.

But not just any old whales. These creatures were among the strangest of all whales, called mammalodontids. If alive today, mammalodontids would be as iconically Australian as kangaroos.

Recent fossil discoveries from coastal Victoria…

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