A 40 million year-old whale fossil was recently discovered by Italian masons, suggesting the whale lived in one of the most unlikely of places... Egypt!

The masons found the fossil while cutting through some Egyptian limestone to be used for counter tops. Although they were unaware of just how big of a deal this was, they figured they should notify some local experts. Archeologists were stunned and began digging for more clues, eventually finding prehistoric bone fragments and more. Turns out the masons inadvertently discovered a near-perfect fossil of a whale that had lived in Egypt 40 million years ago.

National Geographic documented the remarkable discovery in this video below:

Egypt is 95% desert, so it's particularly interesting that 40 million years ago, there was enough water that a whale could have lived in the region.

Then again, 40 million years is a very, very long time.

via Neatorama