Whale Evolution Essay
The evolution of whales is brought up more than the evolution of almost any other species. This is not just do to their massive size, the evolution of the whale is very unique. During the evolution of the whale, it lost it’s legs, all of it’s vital systems, and has become to a life in water. This is the opposite of what some scientists believe, they think that most animals evolved from water dwelling creatures to land creatures.
Most details of whale evolution are currently unknown. We do know that whales evolved from a tiger-like creature some 52 million years ago. This was discovered in 1978 by paleontologists, Phil Gingerich. Phil named this prehistoric whale the Pakicetus. These strange forms of whales had four legs, a full tail, and …show more content…
It had a shortened neck, allowing it to be more flexible and streamlined in the water. It’s front feet still had individual toes, but both it’s front and back feet were webbed. The ear of it’s skull was more developed for underwater hearing. It’s legs could also disjoint from it’s pelvis, this allowed them to make quick turns if needed.
The Basilosaurus, the closest form of the modern day whale. These animals were almost identical to the modern day whale. They had fully deveoped features of a whale. They had two fins, no back legs, but a tail fin. At this stage, they basically did not even have a neck, their head was connected to the body, like modern day whales. One big difference was that this was when whales were at their biggest. Modern whales are very big, but only about a half or three quarters the size of the creatures. These ancestors of whales could not got on land whatsoever, they were strictly limited to swimming.
The whale had evolved more than almost any other modern animal. This is why there is so much thought and controversy that surrounds this topic. Scientists are constantly discovering new things about the whale, for instance, some scientists now believe that the hippo should be a part of the whale family
Most details of whale evolution are currently unknown. We do know that whales evolved from a tiger-like creature some 52 million years ago. This was discovered in 1978 by paleontologists, Phil Gingerich. Phil named this prehistoric whale the Pakicetus. These strange forms of whales had four legs, a full tail, and …show more content…
It had a shortened neck, allowing it to be more flexible and streamlined in the water. It’s front feet still had individual toes, but both it’s front and back feet were webbed. The ear of it’s skull was more developed for underwater hearing. It’s legs could also disjoint from it’s pelvis, this allowed them to make quick turns if needed.
The Basilosaurus, the closest form of the modern day whale. These animals were almost identical to the modern day whale. They had fully deveoped features of a whale. They had two fins, no back legs, but a tail fin. At this stage, they basically did not even have a neck, their head was connected to the body, like modern day whales. One big difference was that this was when whales were at their biggest. Modern whales are very big, but only about a half or three quarters the size of the creatures. These ancestors of whales could not got on land whatsoever, they were strictly limited to swimming.
The whale had evolved more than almost any other modern animal. This is why there is so much thought and controversy that surrounds this topic. Scientists are constantly discovering new things about the whale, for instance, some scientists now believe that the hippo should be a part of the whale family