There are gaps between land mammals and whales

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Claim

There are gaps between land mammals and whales.

Source

Responses

  1. The discovery of Pakicetus and Ambulocetus would seem to belie this assumption.
  2. Recent comparisons of genomes strongly suggest that the whales are closely related to hippopotami.
  3. Gaps, whether real or imagined, do not disprove or even weaken evolutionary theory. Certainly we cannot expect every species that ever existed to be preserved in the fossil record. However, every fossil that has been discovered fits evolutionary theory.
  4. add more responses

Links

  • Sutera, Raymond, 2001. The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent Evidence. Reports of the National Center for Science Education, [2]
  • Babinski, Edward T., 2003. Cetacean Evolution (Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises) [3]

References

  1. Gingerich, P.D. et al., 1983. Origin of whales in epicontinental remnant seas. Science 220: 403-406.
  2. Gingerich, P.D., B.H. Smith, & E.L. Simons, 1990. Hind limb of Eocene Basilosaurus: Evidence of feet in whales. Science 249: 154-157.
  3. Gingerich, P. et al., 1993. Partial skeletons of Indocetus ramani [Mammalia, Cetacea] from the Lower Middle Eocene Domanda Shale in the Sulaiman Range of Punjab [Pakistan]. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology of the University of Michigan 28, p.393-416.
  4. Gingerich, P.D. et al., 1994. New whale from the Eocene of Pakistan and the origin of cetacean swimming. Nature 368: 844-847.
  5. Thewissen, J.G.M., and Hussain, S.T., 1993. Origin of underwater hearing in whales. Nature 361: 444-445.
  6. Thewissen, J.G.M., S.T. Hussain, and M. Arif, 1993. Fossil evidence for the origin of aquatic locomotion in archaeocete whales. Science 263: 210-212.
  7. Thewissen, J.G.M. et al., 1994. Fossil evidence for the origin of aquatic locomotion in archaeocete whales. Science 263: 210-212. See also Berta, A., 1994. What is a whale? Science 263: 180-181.
  8. Stricherz, Vince, 1998 (10 Oct.). Burke displays fossil of toothless whale. http://depts.washington.edu/uweek/archives/1998.10.OCT_29/_article2.html See also http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/baleen980916.html

Further Reading

  • Gould, S.J., 1997. "Hooking Leviathan By Its Past", in Dinosaur in a Haystack.
  • Thewissen, J.G.M. and E.M. Williams, 2002. The early radiations of Cetacea (Mammalia): Evolutionary pattern and developmental correlations. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33: 73-90.
  • Thewissen, J.G.M., Madar, S.I., and Hussain, S.T., 1998. Whale ankles and evolutionary relationships. Nature 395: 452. See also Wong, K., 1999 (Jan.). Cetacean creation. Scientific American 280(1): 26,30.
  • Thewissen, J.G.M. (ed.), 1998. The Emergence of Whales: Evolutionary Patterns in the Origin of Cetacea, Plenum, New York.
  • Discover, 1995 (Jan.). "Back to the Sea". (Brief description of recent fossil whale discoveries, with a nice full-color painting depicting evolution to the sea showing a mesonychid on land, Ambulocetus at the shoreline, the legged Eocene whale Rodhocetus in shallow water, and the later vestigial-legged whale Prozeuglodon in deep water.)
  • Pojeta, John Jr. and Springer, Dale A., 2001. Evolution and the Fossil Record, American Geological Institute, Alexandria, VA. [4] [5].

See Also

Acknowledgments

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