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Nature 413, 259-260 (20 September 2001) | doi:10.1038/35095137
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Walking with whales
Christian de Muizon
Abstract
Whales must have evolved from land-based mammals, but fossil evidence of some of the steps in between has been patchy. Newly discovered skeletons with legs fill in the gaps.
On page 277 of this issue, Thewissen and colleagues1 describe their discovery of partial fossil skeletons from the earliest cetaceans — a group of mammals that today consists of whales, porpoises and dolphins. The fossils, which are some 50 million years old and were found in Pakistan, take us a huge step forwards in understanding the origins and evolutionary relationships of whales.
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