Giant 42.6m-year-old fossil was found along coast of Peru and suggests creature could walk on land
Thu 4 Apr 2019 11.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 4 Apr 2019 13.35 EDT
An ancient four-legged whale with hooves has been discovered, providing new insights into how the ancestors of the Earth’s largest mammals made the transition from land to sea.
The giant 42.6m-year-old fossil, discovered in marine sediments along the coast of Peru, appears to have been adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Its hoofed feet and the shape of its legs suggest it would have been capable of bearing the weight of its bulky four metre long body and walking on land. Other anatomical features, including a powerful tail and webbed feet similar to an otter suggest it was also a strong swimmer.
“Whales are this iconic example of evolution,” said Travis Park, an ancient whale expert at the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the latest study. “They went from small hoofed mammals to the blue whale we have today. It’s so interesting to see how they conquered the oceans.”
This was posted on my Bboard by a friend in Australia and I just had to share this. There is more at the Guardian at the link. I had to read the headline three times to get it to sink in. I thought it was an Apr Fools joke when I saw the headline.
But once again, we see that there are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamed of in our philosophy.
With the vast changes occurring on the earth, it makes one wonder what caused the whale to take to the water full time anyway. After all the work of getting out of the ocean, and then heading back like that brings to mind the old line from “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” about the fact that among humans.
“Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.
So what happen back 42 million give or take a couple hundred thousand years, that made these creature head back? And did any of the take off into space? Sorry, was just reading up on ‘Star Trek: the Voyage home’, couldn’t resist.
But all in all, this has to be a monumental find, and even more remarkable for the fact that it is hard enough to find fossils of that age, let alone in a shape that give us this kind of Info. Makes me want to find a bunch of “Evangelicals” who keep telling us that “if evolution were true, we should be find more ‘in between’s’. Well if this isn’t an In-between than there is no such thing.
I highly suggest heading to the Guardian, and looking up the article. I just tossed em some money, to keep going. I think the spouse has also paid them for a subscription. This is how we are going to keep ‘good journalism’ going.