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New Whale Species Unearthed In California Highway Dig
sciencehabit writes "Thanks to a highway-widening project in California's Laguna Canyon, scientists have identified several new species of early toothed baleen whales. The new fossils date to 17 to 19 million years ago, or the early-mid Miocene epoch, making them the youngest known toothed whales. Three of the fossils belong to the genus Morawanocetus, which is familiar to paleontologists studying whale fossils from Japan, but hadn't been seen before in California. These three, along with the fourth new species, which is of a different genus, represent the last known occurrence of aetiocetes, a family of mysticetes that coexisted with early baleen whales. Thus, they aren't ancestral to any of the living whales, but they could represent transitional steps on the way to today's whales."
Nature: creates universe, life, billions of years of different species, creatures of every conceivable size and type, vast oceans, huge forests, nicotine, sugar and alcohol.
Humans: internal combustion, digital computers, drone strikes and Minecraft.
It makes me feel tiny, insignificant and sort of helpless, and to think the same of my species.
There are more of them. I can feel them moving around underfoot at times when I visit California.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Was there, or was there not, a bowl of petunias found anywhere near the whale's carcass?
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
I think you're leaving out some of the good stuff. The moon landings and the Large Hadron Collider make me feel a bit better about what humans are able to achieve. And it's not as if we're done yet, either.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
Even before this find, whales are one of the most well documented transitions from one "kind" to another "kind" (as the creationist idiots like to call them).
Not really surprising to know that hippos and cows are the whale's closest living land relatives.
And this is totally supported by both fossil evidence and DNA evidence.
Wax on, wax off baby!