Hi, P-assengers! Welcome back again in weekly article PIDAS81. Are you feeling good, P-assengers? I hope you are, ya. As the title, we’ll discuss the history of whales. Whales are one of the largest mammals, whales also have an interesting evolutionary time. Many scientists have found fossils of four-legged whales. So come on, follow the article until it’s finished, P-assengers!
Whales and dolphins are mammals and breathe air into their lungs. They live in the ocean. Attached from Wikipedia whales consist of eight extant families, there are Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the grey whale), Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). Now, whales are divided into two major groups, Odontocetes (toothed whales) and Mysticetes (baleen whales). Whales evolved about 50 million years ago.
One of the largest types of mammals, namely the blue whale because it reaches 30 meters in length and weighs more than 180.000 kg. 48 million years ago, the whales evolved from a four-legged mammal or what is believed to be Pakicetus that lived on the land about 48 million years ago and is only 1.8m long.
On August 25, 2021, scientists from the Center for Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Mansoura, Egypt claimed to have found a 43 million-year-old four-legged whale fossil. Another discovery, in 2011 in Peru and according to CNN Indonesia from various fossils, shows that whales evolved more than 50 million years ago in Pakistan and India. Evolution occurred from hoofed land mammals that are distantly related to the hippopotamus.
So, P-assengers that’s all about whale’s history. Studying the evolution of animal life is fun, isn’t it? Okay, P-assengers now we have to say goodbye again. See you in the next weekly article!
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