Editing Basilosaurus (section)

===Wadi El Hitan===
{{Main|Wadi El Hitan}}
[[File:Wadi Al-Hitan.jpg|thumb|Skeleton of ''B. isis'' at [[Wadi El Hitan]]]]
[[File:Basilosaurus isis fossil, Nantes History Museum 03.jpg|thumb|left|''Basilosaurus isis'' fossil, Nantes History Museum in France]]
Wādī al-Ḥītān ({{Langx|ar|وادي الحيتان|translit=|lit=Valley of the Whales}}) is an Egyptian sandstone formation where many early-whale skeletons were discovered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldheritagesite.org/list/id/1186|title=Wadi Al-Hitan| publisher=World Heritage Site|access-date=17 August 2017}}</ref> German botanist [[Georg August Schweinfurth]] discovered the first archaeocete whale in Egypt (''Zeuglodon osiris'', now ''[[Saghacetus]] osiris'') in 1879. He visited the [[Qasr el Sagha Formation]] in 1884 and 1886 and missed the now famous Wadi El Hitan by a few kilometers. German paleontologist [[Wilhelm Dames|Wilhelm Barnim Dames]] described the material, including the type specimen of ''Z. osiris'', a well-preserved dentary.<ref name=gingerich2007>{{cite book |last=Gingerich |first=P. D. |year=2008 |chapter-url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gingeric/PDFfiles/PDG471_WhalesinEgypt.pdf |title=Elwyn Simons: A Search for Origins |chapter=Early Evolution of Whales: A Century of Research in Egypt |series=Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects |pages=107–124 |editor1-last=Fleagle |editor1-first=J. G. |editor2-last=Gilbert |editor2-first=C. C. |location=Berlin |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-73895-6 |access-date=31 August 2013 |archive-date=5 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105101205/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gingeric/PDFfiles/PDG471_WhalesinEgypt.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Hugh Beadnell, head of the Geological Survey of Egypt 1896–1906,<ref name=gingerich2007/> named and described ''Zeuglodon isis'' in {{Harvnb|Andrews|1904}} based on a partial mandible and several vertebrae from Wadi El Hitan in Egypt.<ref>{{Harvnb|Andrews|1904|pp=214–215}}</ref> {{Harvnb|Andrews|1906}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Andrews|1906|pp=255}}</ref> described a skull and some vertebrae of a smaller archaeocete and named it ''Prozeuglodon atrox'', now known today as ''[[Dorudon]] atrox''. {{Harvnb|Kellogg|1936}} discovered deciduous teeth in this skull and it was then believed to be a juvenile [''Pro'']''zeuglodon isis'' for decades before more complete fossils of mature ''Dorudon'' were discovered.{{sfn|Kellogg|1936|p=81}}<ref name=gingerich2007/><ref>{{Cite journal| last = Uhen | first = Mark D.| title = Form, Function, and Anatomy of ''Dorudon Atrox'' (Mammalia, Cetacea): An Archaeocete from the Middle to Late Eocene of Egypt| year = 2004 | journal = Papers on Paleontology | volume = 34 |page=11| hdl = 2027.42/41255}}</ref>

In the 1980s, [[Elwyn L. Simons]] and [[Philip D. Gingerich]] started to excavate at Qasr el-Sagha and Wadi El Hitan with the hope of finding material that could match archaeocete fossils from Pakistan. Since then, over 500 archaeocete skeletons have been found at these two locations, of which most are ''B. isis'' or ''D. atrox'', several of the latter carrying bite marks assumed to be from the former.<ref name=gingerich2007/> A 1990 paper described additional fossils including foot bones and speculated that the reduced hind limbs were used as copulatory guides.<ref name="pmid-17836967"/> One thing that was noted, was that whale fossils were so common, that when a mason company looked at their newest table counter, they realized that they had created a cross section of a 40 million year old basilosaurid fossil. This find was another thing that caught the eye of Gingerich.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fossil Found in Kitchen Counter |url=https://cms.video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/wild-chronicles/00000144-0a1e-d3cb-a96c-7b1fd7a10000?gc=%2Fvideo%2Fenvironment%2Fenvironmental-threats&gs=picks |website=National Geographic}}</ref>

In 2015, a complete skeleton, the first-ever such find for ''Basilosaurus'', was uncovered in Wadi El Hitan, preserved with the remains of its prey, including a ''Dorudon'' and several species of fish. The whale's skeleton also shows signs of scavenging by large sharks such as the [[Otodontidae|otodontid]] ''[[Otodus sokolovi]]'', though the study considered it possible that this shark was also part of the diet of ''Basilosaurus''.<ref name="Basilo2019"/>