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The earliest known ancestor of arctic whales is Denebola brachycephala from the late Miocene around 9–10 million years ago. [55] A single fossil from Baja California indicates the family once inhabited warmer waters. [27] [56] [57] Acrophyseter skull. Ancient sperm whales differ from modern sperm whales in tooth count and the shape of the ...
Pakicetus (meaning 'whale from Pakistan') is an extinct genus of amphibious cetacean of the family Pakicetidae, which was endemic to Indian Subcontinent during the Ypresian (early Eocene) period, about 50 million years ago. [2]
The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. Cetaceans are fully aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya.
Archaeoceti ("ancient whales"), or Zeuglodontes in older literature, is a paraphyletic group of primitive cetaceans that lived from the Early Eocene to the late Oligocene 1] Representing the earliest cetacean radiation , they include the initial amphibious stages in cetacean evolution , thus are the ancestors of both modern cetacean suborders ...
Whales emerged about 52 million years ago in the Tethys Ocean (between present-day India and Asia). It was a warm, fertile shallow sea very much like the one which covered southeastern United States 40 million years ago when whales (Georgiacetus & Carolinacetus) were already present in America. There are two schools of thought on how they got ...
Artiocetus clavis was a small whale measuring 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) long. [2] It existed in the early Lutetian age (47 million years ago) and is one of the oldest known protocetid archaeocetes. Though the whale may have been primarily aquatic, the discovery of ankle bones lends to the idea that this fossil may have been a transition between ...
They are related to the Indohyus, an extinct chevrotain-like ungulate, from which they split approximately 48 million years ago. [21] [22] Primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 million years ago and became fully aquatic 5–10 million years later. What defines an archaeocete is the presence of anatomical ...
The two parvorders, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have diverged around thirty-four million years ago. [13] Baleen whales have bristles made of keratin instead of teeth. The bristles filter krill and other small invertebrates from seawater. Grey whales feed on bottom-dwelling mollusks.