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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]
Georgiacetus is an extinct genus of ancient whale known from the Eocene period of the United States.Fossils are known from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and protocetid fossils from the right time frame, but not yet confirmed as Georgiacetus, have been found in Texas (Kellogg 1936) and South Carolina (Albright 1996).
The most conspicuous fossils are the skeletons and bones of whales and sea cows, and over several hundred fossils of these have been documented. [9] Wādī al-Ḥītān (Whale Valley) is unusual in having such a large concentration of fossil whales (1500 marine vertebrate fossil skeletons) in a relatively small area.
Whales are not thought to have a good sense of taste, as their taste buds are atrophied or missing altogether. However, some toothed whales have preferences between different kinds of fish, indicating some sort of attachment to taste. The presence of the Jacobson's organ indicates that whales can smell food once inside their mouth, which might ...
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Scientists think they might have finally learned the secret to how whales sing their complicated songs. We knew whales made a vast array of vocalizations, called songs, that can carry for ...
"Two whales came out of the water, hit this boat, landed on the motor, popped the top off of that. This is mostly made of rubber and metal, some of it damaged as well - you see where it was ...