When Whales Walked the Earth

A newly unearthed fossil is the missing link between land and marine mammals

By Day Greenberg Posted 04.08.2008 at 11:49 am 5 Comments

Missing Link: Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy

Standing two to three feet tall on legs adapted to wade through shallow water, the 48-million-year-old Indohyus is the missing link between modern-day whales and their land-lubbing ancestors. Hans Thewissen of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy recovered the skeleton in rocks from Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan, where the deer-like herbivore lived during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 34 million years ago.

The extreme thickness of its bones is a trait seen often in animals that are aquatic waders (thick, heavy bones counteract buoyancy and allow the animal to stay underwater more easily), and chemical traces in its teeth indicate that the animal ate plants in a freshwater environment. Scientists know that Indohyus belongs in the evolutionary path with whales because it has skeletal similarities to both modern whales and known primordial whale ancestors.

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5 Comments

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kellsbob

04/08/08 at 2:31 pm

i think this article is so interesting. id like to give a shout out to my science teacher, ms laccone! thnks so much for assigning this boringly unuseful assignment!

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truekiwibrowne

04/09/08 at 1:52 am

Having the same skeletal similarities does not mean anything because there are LAND animals which have skeletal similarities with whales. So I cant see how scientists can "KNOW" that the Indohyus belongs in the evolutionary path with whales.

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truekiwibrowne

04/09/08 at 1:55 am

Also can someone tell me how scientists "KNOW" that the Indohyus lived 56 to 34 million years ago.

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lolbob

04/09/08 at 10:43 am

Wow, the most amazing thing is the preserved dino cell phone that was unearthed with the fossil! Does it still work? Talk about roaming charges.

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xsjado

04/10/08 at 10:33 am

I suppose truekiwibrow has never heard of radio isotope dating. Or considered that different skeletal similarities may imply different things about the evolution of an organism and its place in the timeline. I suppose he also don't understand the very concept of science if he thinks scientist ever claim to have certain knowledge. Regardless, unless he happens to be an expert in the field he should stop presuming to "KNOW" better than people who have devoted their lives to the subject. Especially when all the information he has on this instance is two paragraphs.

This is an exciting discovery because the evolutionary heritage of whales is one of the topics that creationists like to pick on.