General•Transitional Whale Species Hunted at Sea, Gave Birth on Land

• • sepslugseven
  • February 19
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  Early whales hunted at sea but spent the rest of their time on land, suggest two newly-described fossil whales — one of them a pregnant female — believed to represent a transitional species between earth- and water-bound behemoths.
  
  Dating from 47.5 million years ago, the whales had large teeth suited for consuming fish, and flipper-like limbs that could support their weight on land, albeit awkwardly. The fetal skeleton was positioned for head-first delivery, typically seen in land mammals. Modern whales give birth tail-first.
  
  "They clearly were tied to the shore," said study co-author Philip Gingerich, a University of Michigan paleontologist, in a press release. "They were living at the land-sea interface and going back and forth."
  
  Gingerich’s team dubbed the whales Maiacetus inuus. Maicetus means "mother whale," and Inuus was a Roman fertility god.
  
  "About 40 to 50 million years ago, the ocean was very rich with life, fish and other creatures, in shallow water," said Brian Huber, a Smithsonian Institute paleontologist, during the opening of an M. inuus-featuring exhibit last fall. "Mammals were diversifying on land, and there was a lot of competition for food. So, some mammals began living part of their lives in the ocean, just to feed. At some point, they began living all of their lives in the ocean."
  
  Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/earlywhale/#ixzz0g1ZtpgPr

• • FreemanRAM
  • February 19
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  Hmm.. what are the before and after species this is a transition between?

• • sepslugseven
  • February 19
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  I have no idea. It is so vast, and I will have to let others do the research and tell me cool stories. I just don't have a passion for deeper research in this issue, but i'm down to see what others find.

• • FreemanRAM
  • February 19
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  Right on. Was just wondering if they had mentioned it.

• • sepslugseven
  • February 19
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  I guess it was the transition between a multi surface whale to a water only whale. I feel like I could make an SNL skit about this. haha.

• • sepslugseven
  • February 19
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  The idea I think was that there was a lot of food available in the water so they evolved to be able to take advantage of that in order to further the species. It's really difficult to try to figure out how all these pieces fit together