''Rayanistes'' is a genus of remingtonocetid whale from the Middle Eocene deposits in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Significance and biology

''Rayanistes'' was capable of extensive power strokes during pelvic paddling, based on the robust hindlimb and innominate. The more abducted orientation of its femur allowed for greater maneuverability of the hip joint in contrast to that of ''

Remingtonocetus ''Remingtonocetus'' is an extinct genus of early cetacean freshwater aquatic mammals of the family (biology), family Remingtonocetidae endemic to the coastline of the ancient Tethys Ocean during the Eocene. It was named after naturalist Remington ...

''. The discovery of ''Rayanistes'' is significant because it shows that the most primitive non-pelagicete cetaceans were becoming widespread beyond the southern margin of the ancient Tethys sea.Ryan M. Bebej, Iyad S. Zalmout, Ahmed A. Abed El-Aziz, Mohammed Sameh M. Antar and Philip D. Gingerich (2016). "First remingtonocetid archaeocete (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the middle Eocene of Egypt with implications for biogeography and locomotion in early cetacean evolution". Journal of Paleontology. in press. doi:10.1017/jpa.2015.57.

References

Remingtonocetidae Transitional fossils Fossil taxa described in 2016 Monotypic prehistoric cetacean genera Eocene mammals of Africa {{paleo-whale-stub