Did whales ever have legs? The whales we know today look nothing like they did millions of years ago.
Even though Indohyus had the elegant legs of a small deer and walked around on hooves, it also had features found only in modern and fossil whales. In whales, however, the story is more complex. Some species also grew to be some of the largest animals in existence. ... About 375 million years ago, the first tetrapods—vertebrates with arms and legs—pushed themselves out of the swamps and began to live on land. About 43 million years ago, when South America was surrounded by water on all sides, there lived a whale with four legs, elongated toes, sharp teeth and perhaps even fur. And last year, findings from a new in-depth study — published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology — helped me f… Otters aren’t whales and the pressures on their life are different from the pressures on whales’ lives.
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Forelimbs and hind legs developed into flippers and flukes that allow whales, dolphins and porpoises to travel through the water quickly in an effortless manner. However, even assuming that the evolutionists were correct about this, this would mean that at some point the hypothetical land mammal would not have been able to survive on land or in water. Posted by EarthSky in Earth | December 19, 2008. ... whales would have … If you don't use it, you lose it - thus, whales lost (for the most part, beyond some vestigial bones) their legs. Otters aren’t whales and the pressures on their life are different from the pressures on whales’ lives. Get Teacher Tips and Exclusive Offers.
Oct 6, 2014 - I’ve always figured whales had legs, dividing them between land and sea. How Did Whales Evolve?
Our faces did not change that much.
When ancient whales finally parted company with the last remnants of their legs about 35 million years ago, a relatively sudden genetic event may have crowned an eons-long shrinking process.
Between 41 million and 50 million years ago, whales’ hind limbs did shrink greatly as these former land animals began a return to the sea. Working through the process with a fun activity like "Why Don’t Whales Have Legs" can help decrease the stress when they get to a topic such as photosynthesis. An ancient four-legged whale with hooves has been discovered, providing new insights into how the ancestors of the Earth’s largest mammals made the transition from land to sea.
Whatever Basilosaurus actually did with its little legs, finding them confirmed that the ancestors of whales had once walked, trotted, and galloped on land. The evolutionist position is at once simple and perfectly logical: modern whales have vestigial legs and pelvic girdles precisely because they evolved from land animals with legs (most likely artiodactyls, an ungulate mammal of which hippos are perhaps the best modern example). A dorsal fin developed on the back of some species in order to provide them with better stabilization when swimming through the water. Whales are mammals, and their ancient ancestors are thought to have lived on land. In many ways, the question is being asked the wrong way round. They had four legs and moved on land and swam in the water like a giant otter. In many ways, the question is being asked the wrong way round. Scientists have long theorized that millions of years ago, whales had legs, dividing time between land and sea. How did Whales have legs? Hind legs likely helped Peregocetus’ ancestors swim from the northern coast of Africa to South America more than 43 million years ago, Lambert said.
Its jaws and teeth were similar to those of early whales, but the best evidence was the presence of … But their legs showed no change in the basic arrangement and number of bones, which proved that Sonic Hedgehog was still functioning. Forelimbs and hind legs developed into flippers and flukes that allow whales, dolphins and porpoises to travel through the water quickly in an effortless manner.
Evolutionists believe that whales have leftover vestigial pelvises that indicate they evolved from another type of creature. A dorsal fin developed on the back of some species in order to provide them with better stabilization when swimming through the water.