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Evolution of Whales
Introduction
Call it an unfinished story, but with a plot that's a grabber. It's the tale of an ancient land
mammal making its way back to the sea, becoming the forerunner of today's whales. In
doing so, it lost its legs, and all of its vital systems became adapted to a marine existence
-- the reverse of what happened millions of years previously, when the first animals
crawled out of the sea onto land.
Some details remain fuzzy and under investigation. But we know for certain that this
back-to-the-water evolution did occur, thanks to an abundance of intermediate fossils
that have been uncovered over the past few decades.

Elomeryx (El-o-mir-ix)
Elomeryx is an Anthracothere from Eocene Asia and Europe.  This was a very important
mammal because it evolved from the Condylarths into whales, hippos, and manatees.  It
was also one of the earliest Anthracotheres. First Discovered in 1894, late Eocene, it had
five fingers and have four toes. Long slender legs and a digitigrade stance gave few clues
that this taxon was ancestral to whales.

Pakicetus (Pa-key-SEE-tuhs)
Paleontologist Phil Gingerich discovered a 50-million-year-old skull in Northen
Pakistan that resembled fossils of creodonts -- wolf-sized carnivores that lived in the
early Eocene epoch. But the skull also had characteristics in common with the
Archaeocetes, the oldest known whales. The new bones, dubbed Pakicetus, proved to
have key features that were transitional between terrestrial mammals and the earliest
true whales. One of the most interesting was the ear region of the skull. In whales, it is
extensively modified for directional hearing underwater.
Over time, fossils also revealed that Pakicetus had an ear bone with a feature unique to
whales and an ankle bone that linked it to artiodactyls, a large order of even-toed hoofed
mammals that includes hippos, pigs, sheep, cows, deer, giraffes, antelopes, and even
cetaceans, the only aquatic artiodactyls.

Ambulocetus (am-byoo- SEE -tuhs)

Another, slightly more recent form also found in Northern Pakistan, called
Ambulocetus, was an amphibious animal. Its forelimbs were equipped with fingers and
small hooves. The hind feet of Ambulocetus, however, were clearly adapted for
swimming. Functional analysis of its skeleton shows that it could get around effectively
on land and could swim by pushing back with its hind feet and undulating its tail, as
otters do today.

Rodhocetus (roh-doh-SEE-tuhs)
Found in Eastern Pakistan, Rodhocetus shows evidence of an increasingly marine
lifestyle. Its neck vertebrae are shorter, giving it a less flexible, more stable neck -- an
adaptation for swimming also seen in other aquatic animals such as sea cows, and in an
extreme form in modern whales. The ear region of its skull is more specialized for
underwater hearing. And its legs are disengaged from its pelvis, symbolizing the
severance of the connection to land locomotion.
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Basilosaurus
Originally given the name – which means “king lizard” – because it was mistaken for a
giant sea serpent, Basilosaurus was a creature more than 55 feet (16 meters) long.
Basilosaurus -- clearly an animal fully adapted to an aquatic environment -- was
swimming the ancient seas, propelled by its sturdy flippers and long, flexible body. Yet
Basilosaurus still retained small, weak hind legs -- baggage from its evolutionary past --
even though it could not walk on land. Basilosaurus was one of the first named fossil
whales in the world. It represents a sidebar in whale evolution. Because it has strangely
long trunk vertebrae not found in any other whales, scientists believe it was an
evolutionary dead end and thus it is a fascinating story about the twists and turns
evolution takes over time.

Fossils of Basilosaurus have been discovered in Southern United\States of America.

Fossils of these animals were so common (and sufficiently large) that they were
regularly used as furniture in the American South. Basilosaurus Fossils have also been
found in Egypt.

Zygorhiza (Zie-go-rye-za)

Zygorhiza is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale known from the Late Eocene.
Zygorhiza was discovered in the early 1800’s and the first complete skeleton was
finished in 1834.Known locations for Zygorhiza is almost exclusively the East coast of
the United States, primarily in the Gulf Coast states, and many fossils have been found
in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. There also have been a few finds in Georgia,
Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Outside North America, Zygorhiza has
been reliably identified only in New Zealand. It is a forerunner of the modern toothed
whales (e.g., sperm whales, killer whales, porpoises, etc.). During its lifetime, the Earth
was mostly ice free and many of the continents that we have today were connected (i.e.,
Antarctica and Australia, and North America and Europe).

None of these animals is necessarily a direct ancestor of the whales we know today; they
may be side branches of the family tree. But the important thing is that each fossil whale
shares new, whale-like features with the whales we know today, and in the fossil record,
we can observe the gradual accumulation of these aquatic adaptations in the lineage that
led to modern whales.

As evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin points out, "In one sense, evolution didn't invent
anything new with whales. It was just tinkering with land mammals. It's using the old to
make the new.”
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Whales in the Making

a b c
1. Zygorhiza, Prozeuglodon, Dorudon ~ 36 mya (million years ago)
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a b c
2. Elomeryx,, Anthracotheriidae - 55 mya
2. Mesonychids (extinct land mammals, with whale-like teeth, e.g. Pachyaena, Dissacus, Haplodectes) ~ 55 mya
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a b c
3. (1983) Pakicetus inachus (skull and teeth only) ~ 50 mya
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a
b c
4. (1990)
(1834) Basilosaurus isis (hind leg found) ~ 37 mya
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a
b
5. (1994) Rodhocetus kasrani ~ 46 mya
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a b
6. (1994) Ambulocetus natans ~ 48 mya
© 2001 WGBH Educational Foundation and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Whale Evolution Data Table
Name Mesonychids
Elomeryx Pakicetus Ambulocetus Rodhocetus Basilosaurus Zygorhiza
e.g. Pachyaena
Year reported
Country
where found
Geological
age (mya)
Habitat
(land, fresh
water, shallow
sea, open
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ocean)
Skull, teeth,
ear structure
types most
like...
whale
or land
mammal?
Limbs and
tail:
Description;
Did it swim?
How?
© 2001 WGBH Educational Foundation and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
Name___________________________

Analysis:

1. What is the closest living relative to whales and dolphins?

2. Why are whales and dolphins not actually that closely related to the
hippopotamus?

3. Based on the fossil record when can we conclude that the ancestors of whales
and dolphins lived entirely in the water?

4. How can we tell when the ancestors of whales and dolphins became entirely
aquatic species?

5. Why is Basilosaurus a misleading name?

6. Look at the fossils below, describe how it shows the evolution of the blowhole
on whales and dolphins.