Origin of Cetaceans

New Addition to Web
The Evolution of Whales
Based on National Geographic's sensational article from November 2001, by Douglas H. Chadwick, Shawn Gould and Robert Clark, The Evolution of Whales. Overview of whale origins. Includes illustrations based on fossil progressions in transitional whales and dolphins. Additional comments from early whale expert and Paleontologist, J.G.M. Thewissen, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

"Pakicetid fossils were important in determining what whales were related to, and they were used to rebuke the idea that whales were closely related to an extinct group of hoofed mammals called mesonychians. These fossils confirmed what was already suggested by scientists studying the DNA of modern whales: that whales’ closest relatives are even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls, such as pig, hippo, camel, deer, and cows). Current research in the Thewissen lab attempts to determine how .. pakicetids locomoted in water and on land."
Source: Origin of Whales, Thewissen Lab Webpage