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40-Million-Year-Old 'Walking Whale' Fossil Found In Peru

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-long-time-ago dept.

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."

24 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Invertibrate Whales? by rufty_tufty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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 ;-)

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    1. Re:Invertibrate Whales? by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 3, Funny

      >> whales are invertebrates

      Given their size, it seems more likely the vertebrates are in them.

    2. Re:Invertibrate Whales? by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 3, Funny

      "They lost their spine"

      Seeing their imminent defeat at the hands of the coconut-wielding proto-simians, their landlubbing ancestors lost heart and fled to the sea.

  2. cool by marcello_dl · · Score: 2

    Whales could walk and serpents could talk. No problems whatsoever.

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  3. I was wondering by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    40-Million-Year-Old 'Walking Whale' Fossil Found In Peru

    I was wondering what had happened to Cowboy Neil. Glad they found him again.

  4. That's Archaeocetes! by palemantle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Archaeocetes = ancient whales. Achaeocetes = typo. Is a basic spell check too much to ask?

    1. Re:That's Archaeocetes! by loufoque · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How many people have Latin spell-checking installed?

    2. Re:That's Archaeocetes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's misspelled in the article as well as in the summary, so I guess we know that a) at least the submitter can copy and paste accurately, and b) the International Business Times is probably not the best place for accurate science reporting.

    3. Re:That's Archaeocetes! by aBaldrich · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A classicla latin spell checker would say it's a typo, because this is a new word invented by biologists.

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    4. Re:That's Archaeocetes! by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

      classicla

      You conjugated wrong.

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    5. Re:That's Archaeocetes! by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 3, Informative

      Let me put it this way: If your first language is any of { english, french, italian, spanish, ... } - you should have an instinctive feel for the spelling of Latin. If not, well, sorry boy-o, but you're a rube.

      Except for two points:

      A) English is more Germanic based than Latin based. So we aren't particularly strong in old-time Latin. That's why we actually make up words that have one root in Latin and one in Greek, and can't see the problem.

      B) Most of our Latin comes from French, and not the modern form of it at that, but Old French. Old French is itself a bastardized form of Latin, and the native Gaul tongue had some role in it.

      So, with these aspects of English being what they are, it's hardly surprising if we see little relation from our modern words to their original form in ancient Rome.

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  5. Huge teeth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Those teeth suggest that the old whales weren't exactly the "peaceful giants of the sea".

    1. Re:Huge teeth by robthebloke · · Score: 2

      Now they're just hipsters of the sea, living on a shellfish only diet, spending their entire income on in-app purchases for the latest freemium games. Damn those hipsters whales, ruining gaming for the rest of us....

    2. Re:Huge teeth by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nor are modern whales. Some even eat other species of whales.

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    3. Re:Huge teeth by MadKeithV · · Score: 2

      How shellfish of them.

    4. Re:Huge teeth by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      Want to know which is which? Just file right of way for an interstellar express way, and see which ones skedaddle.

    5. Re:Huge teeth by quacking+duck · · Score: 2

      I don't remember being corrected on this before.. (not saying that nobody has tried, but I don't remember it). Perhaps if you'd give some evidence that they are whales rather than just saying they are, I'd change my mental model of the cetacean family.

      Killer whale scientific classification
      Kingdom: Animalia
      Phylum: Chordata
      Class: Mammalia
      Order: Cetacea (all whales)
      Suborder: Odontoceti (toothed whales, including dolphins and porpoises)
      Family: Delphinidae (oceanic dolphin)
      Genus: Orcinus
      Species: O. orca

      Backup from a non-wiki source:

      The word "cetacean" is derived from the Greek word for whale, ketos [...] Living cetaceans are further divided into two suborders: the Odontoceti (toothed whales) and the Mysticeti (baleen whales).

      In other words, any current species falling under Cetacean is by definition a whale.

      So when you say

      they're not "whales eating other whales". They would be "cetaceans eating other cetaceans"

      You are in fact saying the same thing. In more common language, "whales eating other whales" is entirely correct.

  6. WhaleMart by bickerdyke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aren't walking whales quite common at places like Walmart?

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    bickerdyke
    1. Re:WhaleMart by DrXym · · Score: 3, Funny

      They're evolving to use mobility scooters.

  7. Re:New BBC Series by ozbon · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's got to be better than "Walking in Wales"

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  8. Dodgy Source by ozbon · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's probably worth pointing out that the original story is an interview in the Daily Mail ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2423358/Walking-whale-fossil-dating-40M-YEARS-discovered-Peru.html )

    That makes it about as trustworthy and reliable as stories on Fox News

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    I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
    1. Re:Dodgy Source by captainpanic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      At least that link shows an artist impression of the creatures, which is the only thing most people care about. Thanks for posting. :-)

    2. Re:Dodgy Source by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nope, you need to go deeper. They're reporting it from Euronews:

      http://www.euronews.com/2013/09/14/peru-discovers-whale-fossils-in-desert-dating-back-40-million-years/

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  9. Gap in Fossil Record Filled! by slimdave · · Score: 2

    ... and two new gaps created!

    Doh.