Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 19 December 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.388
News
The land-based ancestor of whales
Fossils show that whales entered the water before they took a liking to fish.
Researchers have analysed fossils of what seems to be the missing link between whales and land-based mammals.
The fossils help to show how cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, might have evolved from artiodactyls — even-toed hoofed mammals — some 50 million years ago.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
This is amazing.
I´m wondering about the size of this animal. Was it similar to the size of the whale? And, if it was not, why the whale has envolved to an animal with a very big size?
Speculations over speculations, carefully designed to be in line with previous speculations, so that eventually these can be made into sacrosanct facts! Like the blind men feeling the elephant to figure out what it is! Indeed it is amazing... the way our system works!
Gingerich and Wells published an informative report on Indohyus of a similar nature in Science, vol. 220, 22Apr1983, p.403-406. . Speculations aside, what's new here?
wow wonderful
It seems an old story. I feel it is natural.
The analysis of Indohyus's remains reveals strong evidence for the terrestrial origins of modern-day Cetaceans. Truly incredible and inspiring to learn.