Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Ancient whales gave birth on land.

          After analyzing the fossil of a pregnant whale found in the Pakistani dessert scientists believe primitive whales gave birth on land. Paleontologists were initially stunned at the mixture of adult and fetal bones. The fetus in the mother had fully grown teeth which shows that it would have been ready to fend for itself shortly. The head position of the fetus gave a lot of information. Land mammals are born head first while marine mammals are born tale first. It was a lot safer for animals and dinosaurs to be born on land in prehistoric times because newborns risk drowning, getting lost and being eaten by a predator which the seas where full of. Though you would still have to hide on land it is a lot safer. Paleontologists know that the first whale ancestor was a furry quadrupedal omnivore 50 million years ago and evolved into a fully marine animal 45 million years ago. 
 I believe that this is a new insight into the history of ancient marine animals. I believe that this is a revolutionary find and that it will help scientists better understand evolutionary processes. I also believe that if the evolution of one species is understood then the evolution of all its nearby relative could be understood as well. If more fossils of the same sort were to be discovered more information would be provided to how whales evolved to marine animals. This may be one of the most important fossils ever found.

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