We regret to inform you that your nightmares are about to get worse.
A team led by Egyptian scientists have dug up a 43-million-year-old fossil in the Sahara Desert in Egypt of a now-extinct amphibious four-legged whale.
That's right, folks — a whale with legs.
The authors of the study say this creature had "unique features of the skull" and their "mandible suggest a capacity for more efficient oral mechanical processing."
In other words, these walking whales had a "strong raptorial feeding style."
"We discovered how fierce and deadly its powerful jaws are capable of tearing a wide range of prey ... this whale was a god of death to most of the animals that lived in its area," Abdullah Gohar, one of the scientists, told Insider .
The new whale is called Phiomicetus anubis, which the scientists named in part after Anubis, the canine-headed Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife. It was likely a top predator at the time, similar to what a killer whale is today.
Whales, it turns out, used to be "herbivorous, deer-like- terrestrial mammals," the scientists write. Over the span of about 10 million years, whales turned into carnivorous creatures in the ocean. The discovery of the four-legged creature is part of that evolution.
So, a whale with legs and massive head with a vicious eating style.
Good luck sleeping tonight.
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