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The skeletons of Pakicetus show that whales did not derive directly from mesonychians. Instead, they are artiodactyls that began to take to the water soon after artiodactyls split from mesonychians. Archaeocetes retained aspects of their mesonychian ancestry (such as the triangular teeth) which modern artiodactyls, and modern whales, have lost.
First identified as cetaceans by West 1980, the pakicetids, the most archaic of whales, had long, slender legs and a long, narrow tail, and could reach the size of a modern wolf. They have only been found in sediments from freshwater streams in northwestern India and northern Pakistan, and were probably waders rather than swimmers. [7]
Whales evolved in South Asia, and it was previously thought that the fluke helped early whales spread across Earth from there, so Georgiacetus' presence in America and its legs and tail contradicts this hypothesis. [8] Uhen 2008 also established the clade Pelagiceti [9] to show the relationship between Georgiacetus, the basilosaurids and modern ...
Unlike all later cetaceans, it had four fully functional long legs. Pakicetus had a long snout; a typical complement of teeth that included incisors, canines, premolars, and molars; a distinct and flexible neck; and a very long and robust tail. As in most land mammals, the nose was at the tip of the snout. [5]
Our flippered friends evolved from small, hooved deer-like creatures more than 50m years ago.
Skeletons of basilosaurid whales like Dorudon (featured above) were discovered at the site. Wādī al-Ḥītān is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales.
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Six species of dolphins have the word "whale" in their name, collectively known as blackfish: the orca, or killer whale, the melon-headed whale, the pygmy killer whale, the false killer whale, and the two species of pilot whales, all of which are classified under the family Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins). [6]