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Peregocetus is the first recorded quadrupedal whale from the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Hemisphere. The discovery reveals that protocetids reached the Pacific Ocean and attained a near circumequatorial distribution while retaining functional weight-bearing limbs. [1]
Perucetus is an extinct genus of an early whale from Peru that lived during the Bartonian age of the middle Eocene. Perucetus is the largest Eocene whale, with length estimates varying from 15–16 meters (49–52 ft) to 17–20 meters (56–66 ft).
Cetacean bones of the same period were also found in the area, reflecting the importance of whales in the diet of prehistoric coastal people. Whale bones recovered near the Strait of Gibraltar raise the possibility that whales were hunted in the Mediterranean Sea by ancient Rome. [5] [6]
The first fossil cetaceans near shallow seas (where porpoises inhabit) were found around the North Pacific; species like Semirostrum were found along California (in what were then estuaries). [53] These animals spread to the European coasts and Southern Hemisphere only much later, during the Pliocene. [54]
Basilosaurus (meaning "king lizard") is a genus of large, predatory, prehistoric archaeocete whale from the late Eocene, approximately 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). ). First described in 1834, it was the first archaeocete and prehistoric whale known to scienc
The first spade-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand’s Pitt Island. Another discovery was made at an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Chile ...
The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, the even-toed ungulates. The earliest cetaceans were still hoofed mammals. These early cetaceans became gradually better adapted for swimming than for walking on land, finally evolving into fully marine cetaceans.
Their teeth were thick and robust, built for grabbing prey and breaking bone, and their large jaws could exert a bite force of up to 108,500 to 182,200 newtons (24,390 to 40,960 lbf). Megalodon probably had a major impact on the structure of marine communities. The fossil record indicates that it had a cosmopolitan distribution.