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40-Million-Year-Old 'Walking Whale' Fossil Found In Peru
minty3 writes "Found in the Ocucaje Desert in southern Peru, the fossils belong to a group called Achaeocetes, or ancient whales, that possess both land and sea-dwelling characteristics. Over time, the ancient land animals adapted to water environments where their legs became fin-like and their bodies began to resemble modern sea mammals like dolphins and whales."
They lost their spine and hind legs 5 million years later
I can see why slashdotters don't read the article if the article claims things like whales are invertebrates ;-)
"The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
How many people have Latin spell-checking installed?
A classicla latin spell checker would say it's a typo, because this is a new word invented by biologists.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
At least that link shows an artist impression of the creatures, which is the only thing most people care about. Thanks for posting. :-)
Sadly, this 'whale' in the pictures isn't depicted as having any kind of feet.
That is just one problem I have with evolution and science in general. They show me a piece of a bone, tell me all about how it is a transitional fossil, then draw a pretty picture to fill in the missing parts and call it 'evidence'.
There is another word for that, it is called 'comic books'.
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoceti">Wikipedia entry for this creature seems to paint a different picture than the article wants to present. This article makes it seem like this evolutionary step in whales is a new thing, but it looks like scientists have known about it for a while. The entry even has images of complete skeletons and a nice illustration.
It's kind of funny to think that animals came out of the water, wandered around a bit and decided they didn't like it so returned to the seas. At least it explains waterborne mammals.