A Walking Whale: Ambulocetus

Hippo, like their nearest relatives, whales are descendants of four-legged ancestors walking on land and exploring the transition of the exhibition "Whale: The Abyss of the Giant" held on March 23

Paleontologists have discovered various fossil evidence of "walking whale" showing the early stages of transition from land ancestry to today's familiar whale.

One such "walking whale" is Ambulocetus (am-bew-lo-SEAT-us) Nathan. And it lived in northern Pakistan about 45 million years ago.

It is about 11 to 12 feet long and has strong limbs, but animals may not be able to walk on land. After all, it has a feet that opens from the feet and a hind feet like an ankle weighing about 400 pounds (180 kilograms).

On land, like a sea lion, you may lick your body with a forefoot and pull it. In the water, you may swim like a jellyfish, use huge, and have a hind leg

Ambulocetus has obviously a foot, it may not look like it, but all modern whales do the same. The whale's forefoot evolved into flippers. Almost invisible little hind legs of the hind legs remain in the skeleton of some whale and are inherited from their ancestors on the ground.

Details on the evolution of these marine mammals in the deep-sea Giants whale that opens on Saturday, March 23

It has been developed and exhibited at the Te Papa Tongarewa museum in New Zealand. This exhibition was carried out with the support of the New Zealand government.

Ambulocetus (meaning "walking whale") is the earliest whale species from Pakistan. That name is because it has short legs and big feet for swimming. Together with the other members of Ambulocetidae, it is a transient fossil that shows how whales evolved from terrestrial mammals. The name comes from the historical assumption that you can walk on land, but recent research has shown that it is completely aquatic life like modern whale. Ambulocetus is as completely aquatic as a modern whale, has a similar chest shape and may swim in a vertical swell. Chemical analysis of teeth indicates that it can move between salt and freshwater. There is no outer ear. Its skull has a long nose (facing sideways) headed sideways at the height of the skull like a modern hippopotamus.

Experiments of large nature 's big whale can be continued with Ambulocetus natans. Pakicetus is much bigger, and the walking whale of Thewissen was found in the north Pakistan, shallow beach 49 million years ago. The skeletal chemistry of Ambulocetus suggests that it may live in freshwater partially and the estuary may be where it meets the sea. "This is not the place you want to swim," Thewissen said. "The length of Ambulocetus is not only about 4 meters, but there are many teeth, not that it is not that bad, not less than the same size crocodile, plenty of sharks.

Thewissen's discovery, named Ambulocetus natans, or "Swimming Walking Whale", joins a series of extraordinary, unexpected and sometimes confusing fossil whales. In the past 25 years, they came from the rock. And provided one of the most documented and spectacular evolutionary transformations. Approximately 50 million years ago, the ancestor of a mammalian whale began living aquatic life, contrary to the first time an animal appeared in the sea 200 million years ago. However, evolution never retreats. The whale does not have developmental uplift and scales, but there is a whole new aquatic indication. Other mammals - marine manatees, dugongs, sea otters, polar bears, seals, sea lions, walruses - did not look like other species - about species diversity and number of whales