New species of extinct dolphin found in Zeeland Flanders

The species lived 8.1 to 7.5 million years ago and represents a new branch of the beaked whale family tree. Nine skulls of this species are known. They were all found in a spot in the Western Scheldt no bigger than a football field. Some skulls were almost completely complete. This is unique, says the museum, because at most one skull fragment is known for many fossil whale species. The new extinct species had many teeth and did not yet dive deeply, unlike later beaked whales that no longer have teeth and sucked squid at great depths.