Fact Check: Real Photo of 37-Million-Year-Old Whale Skeleton Found in Egyptian Desert?

Claim:

A photo circulating on social media for years authentically showed a 37-million-year-old fossilized whale skeleton discovered in Egypt.

Rating:

True ( About this rating? )

For years, social media users on Reddit , X , Facebook and other social media sites have shared a photo they claim authentically shows a 37-million-year-old whale skeleton found at Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1eexkkx/37_million_years_old_whale_skeleton_fossil_found/

Reverse image searches on Google and TinEye revealed the image was taken by Associated Press photographer Thomas Hartwell. He captured the photo during a January 2016 visit to Egypt's Wadi Al-Hitan (spelled "Wati El Hitan" in the AP caption), according to information provided by AP Newsroom.

About 90 miles southwest of Cairo, Wadi Al-Hitan is a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its abundance of fossils dating to the middle and late Eocene epoch , roughly 38 million to 36 million years ago, when parts of Egypt were still covered by a prehistoric sea. According to a UNESCO World Heritage Datasheet for Wadi Al-Hitan, "over 400 fossil skeletons of archaic whales and other vertebrates" have been found at the site.

Hartwell visited Wadi Al-Hitan for the unveiling of Egypt's Fossils and Climate Change Museum on January 14, 2016. Various media outlets, including Phys.org and the Daily Mail , used the image for their coverage of the museum's opening.

Snopes also compared the image to numerous photos posted on Google Maps and Tripadvisor , as well on Flickr , by visitors to the museum. The same S-shaped vertebral column from Hartwell's photograph could be seen from different angles in numerous traveler snaps. Some of the photos included a museum label reading: "Intact Skeleton of Basilosaurus whale."

(Tripadvisor user Bob W.)

Paleontologist Philip D. Gingerich explained in a Geological Society of London article that Basilosaurus isis is one of two types of archaic whale most commonly found at Wadi Al-Hitan (the other is the much smaller Dorudon atrox ). Basilosaurus' fossilized skeletons average between 15 and 18 meters in length (roughly 50 to 60 feet), according to a webpage maintained by the University of Michigan's Museum of Paleontology.

In an email to Snopes, Gingerich, who has conducted research at Wadi Al-Hitan, confirmed the bones indeed belong to the Basilosaurus isis species, which lived around 37 million years ago.

Because the photo authentically depicted fossilized whale bones that date to the middle or late Eocene epoch and were discovered in Egypt's Wadi Al-Hitan, Snopes rated this claim as "True."

Sources:

AP. https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/detail?itemid=3888cc78f10c49e897f1c1fd2fe50872&mediatype=photo . Accessed 30 July 2024.

" Basilosaurus Isis ," U-M LSA Museum of Paleontology. https://lsa.umich.edu/paleontology/resources/beyond-exhibits/basilosaurus-isis.html . Accessed 30 July 2024.

"Wadi Al-Hitan 'Whale Valley,'" UNESCO World Heritage Centre, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1186/ . Accessed 30 July 2024.

" Dorudon Atrox ," U-M LSA Museum of Paleontology. https://lsa.umich.edu/paleontology/resources/beyond-exhibits/dorudon-atrox.html . Accessed 30 July 2024.

Evon, Dan. "Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches." Snopes , 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//articles/400681/how-to-perform-reverse-image-searches/ .

Gingerich, Philip D. "Wadi Al-Hitan or 'Valley of Whales' – an Eocene World Heritage Site in the Western Desert of Egypt." Geological Society, London, Special Publications, vol. 543, no. 1, July 2024, pp. 421–30. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1144/SP543-2022-203 .

Gray, Richard. "Egypt Unveils Rare Whale Fossil Museum to Boost Tourism." Mail Online , 14 Jan. 2016, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3399319/Egypt-spend-32M-upgrading-tourist-resort-security.html .

"Wadi Hitan Museum · 727C+MQ6, Al Giza Desert, Giza Governorate 3060001, Egypt." Wadi Hitan Museum · 727C+MQ6, Al Giza Desert, Giza Governorate 3060001, Egypt, https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wadi+Hitan+museum/@29.2641711,30.0131289,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x145c059d35b0ea09:0x7f0525cd1d43dcc0!8m2!3d29.2641711!4d30.0218836!16s%2Fg%2F11f27_z5f6?entry=ttu . Accessed 30 July 2024.

Youssef, Nour. Egypt Unveils Rare Whale Fossil Museum to Boost Tourism (Update). Phys.org , https://phys.org/news/2016-01-egypt-unveils-rare-whale-fossil.html . Accessed 30 July 2024.