For millions of years it is believed that whales spend their entire lives in water. The "how" is a bit more perplexing: Whales are mammals, like humans are, and like humans, they lived and walked on solid ground, breathing air into their lungs. One aspect of this evolution, according to Tom Harris, author of How Whales Work, is explained as follows: However, it is also believed that the evolved from creatures that were once able to walk on land as well. The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent, from even-toed ungulates 50 million years ago, over a period of at least 15 million years. They suggest that early whales used webbed hind legs to swim, and probably lived both on land and in the water about 47 million years ago. They had flatter skulls and feeding filters in their mouths. The transition from land to water is documented by a series of intermediate fossils, many … The basic theme of whale evolution is the development of large animals from much smaller ancestors, and nowhere is this more evident than in the case of multi-ton sperm and gray whales, whose ultimate forebears were small, dog-sized prehistoric mammals that prowled the riverbeds of central Asia 50 million years ago. These are called baleen whales, which include blue whales and humpback whales. How did whales become sea creatures? The skeletal features would need to change radically, as well as the physiology (the collective functions of an organism). Other newly found fossils add to the growing picture of how whales evolved from mammals that walked on land. May 11, 2017 — Modern whales' ancestors probably hunted and chased down prey, but somehow, those fish-eating hunters evolved into filter-feeding leviathans. Whales range in size from the 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) and 135 kilograms (298 lb) dwarf sperm whale to the 29.9 metres (98 ft) and 190 metric tons (210 short tons) blue whale, which is An analysis of a … In each case the morphological differences are significant. Whales without teeth. If whales (cetaceans) did evolve from land mammals, they did so at an unbelievable rate, accruing an amazing number of "beneficial" mutations and adaptations. About 34 million years ago, a group of whales began to develop a new way of eating. Whales may rule the oceans nowadays, but one of their ancient relatives, a 6-foot (1.8 meter) predator, may have dominated on land before this lineage transformed into marine animals. The descendants of Dorudon went on to evolve into modern whales. Due to the pollution, ships in the waters, and humans destroying them some species of whales are suffering as their numbers dip drastically low. The wolf-sized animals ran about on land 50 million years ago. Even though all modern cetaceans are obligate aquatic mammals, early cetaceans were amphibious, and their ancestors were terrestrial artiodactyls, similar to small deer. (As a note for journalists and creationists, Indohyus is not a direct ancestor of whales, as many news sites are claiming, and nor did whales ‘evolve from deer’!) Basically, whales went where the food was. Cetaceans are fully aquatic marine mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla, and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya (million years ago). Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are an order of mammals that originated about 50 million years ago in the Eocene epoch. The world's first mammals heaved themselves out of the water to inhabit and walk the Earth, but unlike other mammals, the globe's first whales, the forerunners of today's baleen and toothed whales (of which there are over 80 species) returned back to the water becoming ocean dwellers once more — the only creatures to perform an evolutionary U-turn. View Images Life in the water Whales are fully aquatic, open ocean creatures, and feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea.

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