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Hippos likely evolved from a group of anthracotheres about 15 million years ago, the first whales evolved over 50 million years ago, and the ancestors of both these groups were terrestrial. These first whales, such as Pakicetus, were typical land animals. They had long skulls and large teeth that could be used for eating meat.
Blubber, blowholes and flukes are among the hallmarks of the roughly 80 species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) alive today. But, because they are mammals, we know that they must ...
Apr 16, 2009 · Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are an order of mammals that originated about 50 million years ago in the Eocene epoch. Even though all modern cetaceans are obligate aquatic mammals, early cetaceans were amphibious, and their ancestors were terrestrial artiodactyls, similar to small deer. The transition from land to water is documented by a series of intermediate fossils, many of ...
- J. G. M. Thewissen, Lisa Noelle Cooper, Lisa Noelle Cooper, John C. George, Sunil Bajpai
- 2009
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Their land-dwelling ancestors lived about 50 million years ago. Meet Pakicetus, a goat-sized, four-legged creature that scientists recognise as one of the first cetaceans (the group of marine animals that includes dolphins and whales). How Pakicetus' descendants evolved into whales is one of the most intriguing evolutionary journeys known to ...
The evolution of whales from land to sea. The genomes of cetaceans help tell the story of mammals who returned to the life aquatic. Around 400 million years ago, the ancestor of all four-limbed creatures took its first steps onto dry land. Fast-forward about 350 million years, and a descendant of these early landlubbers did an about-face: It ...
Watch on. How did whales and dolphins evolve. WDC experts explain. Hippos are the closest living relatives of whales, but they are not the ancestors of whales. Both hippos and whales evolved from four-legged, even-toed, hoofed (ungulate) ancestors that lived on land about 50 million years ago. Modern-day ungulates include hippopotamus, giraffe ...
Nov 26, 2022 · Enlarge / Whales and their kin evolved from land-dwelling mammals, a transition that entailed major physiological and morphological changes—which geneticists have begun to parse. Around 400 ...
