Kristin's Life • mohandasgandhi: When Whales Walked in Egypt The...

mohandasgandhi:

When Whales Walked in Egypt
The discovery of this creature was celebrated by other naturalists as a confirmation that whales had evolved from terrestrial, carnivorous ancestors. The long jaws of Protocetus were set with pointed, conical teeth near the front and large shearing teeth toward the back, and in a short review of Fraas’ work in Nature fellow naturalist “R.L.” –- who I would presume was Richard Lydekker –- concluded that Protocetus and another whale Fraas named Mesocetus were “terrestrial animals in course of modification into purely aquatic ones.” Contrary to the opinion of Fraas –- that such creatures belonged to a different evolutionary lineage than true whales -– R.L. affirmed that his German colleague’s discovery actually strengthened the link between a group of archaic mammalian carnivores called creodonts on land and previously known early whales such as Basilosaurus.

When Whales Walked in Egypt

The discovery of this creature was celebrated by other naturalists as a confirmation that whales had evolved from terrestrial, carnivorous ancestors. The long jaws of Protocetus were set with pointed, conical teeth near the front and large shearing teeth toward the back, and in a short review of Fraas’ work in Nature fellow naturalist “R.L.” –- who I would presume was Richard Lydekker –- concluded that Protocetus and another whale Fraas named Mesocetus were “terrestrial animals in course of modification into purely aquatic ones.” Contrary to the opinion of Fraas –- that such creatures belonged to a different evolutionary lineage than true whales -– R.L. affirmed that his German colleague’s discovery actually strengthened the link between a group of archaic mammalian carnivores called creodonts on land and previously known early whales such as Basilosaurus.